How to MULTIPLY or DIVIDE two MIXED-FRACTIONS QUICKLY

In many Timed Math Tests there are certain problems that directly or indirectly have the operations of MULTIPLICATION or DIVISION of MIXED-FRACTIONS. This article will show how to do these operations QUICKLY.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil and
• Paper.

Instructions

1. 

   Given any two MIXED-FRACTIONS to be MULTIPLIED, as shown in the Image to the left, it takes a longer time to MULTIPLY the MIXED-FRACTIONS
   as they are, and less time if we should change them to IMPROPER FRACTIONS, then MULTIPLY them.

2. 

   We change 5 and ( 2 / 3 ) to ( 17 / 3 ), then we change 3 and ( 3 / 4 ) to ( 15 / 4 ). We now have ( 17 / 3 ) x ( 15 / 4 ) which is equal to ( 17 x 15 ) / ( 3 x 4 ), which can be reduced to lowest terms to [( 17 x 5 ) / 4 ] = ( 85 / 4 ), or
   21 and ( 1 / 4 ). Click the image on the left to have a better view.

3. 

   IN the DIVIDING of two MIXED-FRACTIONS, we change each MIXED-FRACTION
   to an IMPROPER FRACTION, then we take the Reciprocal of the second
   IMPROPER FRACTION and MULTIPLY the first IMPROPER FRACTION. Please click on the example shown in the Image to the left.

Tips & Warnings

• It is very important to look carefully at the NUMERATORS and the DENOMINATORS of the IMPROPER FRACTIONS and see if any of the NUMERATORS can be REDUCED to lowest terms with any of the DENOMINATORS then multiply the remaining factors.

• To understand the reducing of fractions to Lowest Terms, please go to the Article; How to REDUCE fractions to LOWEST TERMS.