Expert: Lynn Houston - 1/29/2009

Question
How do I figure out which fraction is the equivalent to 2.1456 and 89.050 ?? This is hard!!

Answer
Actually, it's fairly simple if you know how to do it :-).  What you're looking for is a/b = 2.1456 and c/d = 89.050.  All you need to do is assign a number to a or b and c or d and then solve for the other variables.  So we end up with whole numbers, lets make b = 10000 and d = 100, so our eqs are now
a/10000 = 2.1456 and c/100 = 89.050  solving each, we get
a = 21456 and c = 8905  So 21456/10000 and 8905/100 are solutions to your question.  Reducing both you get
1341/625 and 1781/20.  Another way to do the problem is to just use the numbers after the decimal to start with and then multiply in the whole number.

1456/10000 = .1456, reduce the fraction to 91/625, the answer is
2 91/625 or 1341/625.  Work the other one the same 89 5/100 = 89 1/20 = 1781/20