4.1 Introduction and Key Insights

A first step toward understanding fractions is to review their different parts – like we identified the exponent and base in an exponential expression in Section 3.4.

For example, the fraction $\frac{8}{11}$ uses three symbols: two integers (eight and 11) and a horizontal line called the fraction bar. We call the number on top of the bar the numerator and the number beneath the bar the denominator. You can read our example in several ways: "8 over 11", "8 out of 11", "8 parts per 11", or "8 divided by 11".