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What is one-half?
What would our world be like without fractions? Our language would
certainly change!
You could never tell a friend to break a cookie in “half" to
share with you. You could only tell them to break it into two
pieces. A glass containing water could never be described as "half
full." How could you describe a partially filled glass?
There would be no such thing as "half past the hour." You
could never say you are "halfway" there when traveling.
Obviously, fractions are truly an important part of our language.
They are equally important in mathematics.
Fractions were used by many early civilizations, including the Babylonians,
Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, and Hindus (in India).
Many times, they only used fractions for very specific mathematical
equations. Today, fractions are a very important part of the study
of mathematics. |
