Can I Have A Slice Of Pizza?
by Danielle
Billy came home from school one day and seemed very melancholy. He gave his mom a failing test grade to sign. He had always been a good student but could not seem to understand fractions. His face was as red as a fire engine! Billy was so embarrassed that he went right to his room.
His mom came into his bedroom with his signed test. She saw how upset he was and told him she would order his favorite food for dinner—pizza. Billy seemed to perk up a little bit; his frown started to disappear.
When she called Billy for dinner, he sat down and seemed to have cheered up a little. He asked his mom to pass him a slice of pizza, but she turned him down. He looked absolutely puzzled. His mom continued, “You can have one-eighth of a pizza”. All disgruntled, Billy whined about having to do math at dinner.
His mom explained that each pizza pie is cut into eight equal slices. “That means there are eight total pieces—which is always the denominator of your fraction when talking about pizza”. Billy remembered that word denominator and thought back to his test.
She told him how the numerator represents the part you want! “So, one-eighth means you would like one slice of the pizza!” Billy smiled and it finally started to make sense. He ate his slice of pizza and even asked for a second “one-eighth”.
When they were done eating, his mom asked how many slices were left. With a huge grin he said “four-eighths!” His mom smiled back, and said, “which is the same as one-half”. Those two fractions are equivalent! Billy said he understood, since half of the pizza box was now empty! Billy went back to his room and started to do his math homework. He was so happy that he finally understood how a fraction was formed!
