So You Like Math, eh? Answer Me This. Thursday, June 21, 2007
There were ten questions. I got one wrong. However, I tried to convince my professor that I was right and he was "misinformed." However that didn't work out so well for me.
The question missed was this: Reduce 0/15. My answer was 0/15. I figured it was already in its lowest form. I was wrong. "0" is the lowest form.
My arguement was this: Why is "O" considered it's "lowest form" considering it's no longer in fraction form. However, 1/2 is considered lowest form but not 0.5.
This really made him think. He thought hard! Another professor actually over heard me ask the question and smirked at me while his companion sweated out an answer.
So math wizards, what's your answer?
Her
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My answer would be 0. I would also consider 1/2 and 0.5 to be equal as far as "lowest form" goes.
Why is my answer 0? Which is lowest form: 3/1 or 3? How about 15/5 vs. 3? I would say if you have the chance to get rid of the fraction completely then you must do so to be lowest form.
Note: I have NEVER been a teacher, that's just my opinion.
[OddJohn]
6/21/2007 8:42:38 PM
Sorry, but I'm on his side. Here's why:
If he asked you to reduce 12/6, the answer would be 2, not 2/1. This is no different.
However, it's a really crappy question, so he should just not count it. [JKD Student]
6/21/2007 9:40:33 PM
well technically you have to reduce it to the number form and 0 of any fraction is still 0. I see your point though. [muted exposure] 6/21/2007 9:46:15 PM
RYN: "why isn't 0.5 considered "lowest form" for 1/2?"
My opinion is that 0.5 isn't a lowest form because it's not a fraction, it's a decimal. If you're doing a math problem consisting of all fractions you wouldn't want to convert only one of them into a decimal like that.
The difference between the 0 and the 0.5 is that the 0 is a whole number, it has no decimal portion. So I would consider the lowest form of 15/5 to be 3 but the lowest form of 5/4 would not be 1.25.
This is especially important when you're doing multiplication of fractions. It's much easier to solve "5/4 * 4/5" than it is to solve "1.25 * .8" because you can easily see to cancel out the 5's and 4's to get 1 as the answer.
[OddJohn]
6/21/2007 11:36:31 PM
tricky question...I can see your point and the teacher's point. 0 is the answer because it is like saying 25/5 is 5/1 or just 5. I never liked zeros with fractions... [lostonthesea]
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