I'm probably not going to be in this room all that much this week, but consider this just an anti-freeze :P

o/

hello!

Hi!

I'm going to be drawing different scenarios out. Here's scenario number 1:

So if a whole number on top is divided by a fraction (3 divided by 3/4), I can rewrite it as the following above, correct?

Or actually, let me just write all the different scenarios out

those all seem OK

I'd suggest a different way of looking at it: turn whole numbers into fractions -- n = n/1 -- and then you don't have a pile of different cases, you can handle them all the same way.

Right. But then I start to get confused when we add more lines. For example...

well, that last one should be "3/4 × 4/3" in the middle

Right

er, yes, it should, sorry. Pretty sure that was just a typo. Write-o. Whatever.

yeah figured you knew that, just making sure to point it out

anyway, that last one all looks OK too

yep, that's right

Okay. Let me pull up the one I was really confused on

although I suggested always "promoting" whole numbers to fractions, I'm all in favour of remembering the special case that 1 / fraction just means turning that fraction upside down :-).

another way to think about it is that "1/..." is always the flip -- when you take 1/stuff, you swap the top and bottom of 'stuff'

Showed up in an SAT practice question and kind of shut off my brain

hm, so you'd like the bottom to be one fraction, right? that would make things easier

you know how to do "1 / (a/b)"

(processing) yes

(general principle behind D's last remark: if faced with something complicated and intimidating, see if you can simplify one part of it a bit, and repeat)

^

So I would want a common denominater

sounds good. Do it!

yep!

Wait (squints) I can do that, right?

well, you've just replaced things with other things that they are equal to

which is always allowed!

Right

looks good so far

also looks good

looks good to me too

(or, again, you can see "1/..." and just flip the "..." upside down)

Right^

yep - there's absolutely nothing wrong with expanding it like that if you're unsure though! it's just a nice thing to remember for when you get more comfortable with manipulating fractions

So if it's being added/subtracted below, I just make it a common denominator, and if it just a fraction below a fraction, below a fraction, etc. I just kee on simplifying my way up

and, again, the general principle here: however complicated something is, if you can simplify some bit of it then you have a line of attack on the whole thing. You're not stuck on the whole thing until you can't find anything in it to improve.

So like (drawing again)

yep, what gareth said

(of course, you need to make sure that the "some bit of it" is actually, so to speak, a self-contained bit. If you have 1/(x+1) + 2/(x+3) then you can't simplify the "(x+1) + 2" into "x+3" :-).)

you might find things that are too complicated to be done by remembering a lot of rules -- knowing what to do in common situations is nice, but the important thing is to just find something you can do something with, even if it's only part of the bigger whole

Wow, North, you got two mods to tutor you!

(still drawing) :P

So does something like that make sense?

you accidentally turned "6/1 ÷ 5/7" into "6/1 × 5/7"

but other than that, it looks good to me!

Yay!

What do I search up if I want to practice this more (especially with variables)

hm, i'm not sure of any particular search terms you should use

Yeah. Most of them are like 4th-grade worksheets on reciprocals

there's khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic-home/negative-numbers/… which seems like it might have some of the right kinds of thing?

(I put "complicated fractions practise" into a search engine; other hits from similar searches might be worth a look)

Ah. Looks good! I guess I could try inputting like "complex variable fraction" though I have a feeling that might give some unwanted calculus material that I don't know of

yeah, I chose "complicated" rather than "complex" to avoid getting things about complex numbers

Ah hah! Found on here

Thank you all for your help!

Wow that sent wrong

Bobble did you get a chance to try the Sauce Plan?

again, Very Socially Distanced Road Trip. We travelled away from where that restruant is.

When you've finished with the Sauce Plan, try the Stock Plot and the Dutch Lovin'.

"Dutch Lovin'" made me choke on my coffee, thank you

I did not get the joke

dutch oven

(a kind of cooking vessel, along with "sauce pan" and "stock pot")

Do not google it, it has a second, less chat-friendly meaning :p

oh, really? I mean, I'm not surprised but I didn't have any specific other meaning in mind.

I only know the joke because I live near Holland and know a lot of Dutch-related jokes

Wait...

Aren't you in Michigan?

Holland, Michigan

It's a super Dutch area

confused noises

holland.org

this place

I was about to say, Sciborg kinda sus

That was probably confusing, sorry :p

Sciborg sus. Saw him vent

How else could he get from Europe to US so quickly

My brain still refuses to accept "sus" as a word, and keeps having to backpedal and puzzle out the intending meaning.

I'm desensitized to it from Among Us, but it is definitely slang

Hehe

I did have a moment where I confidently proclaimed I saw somebody vent the second they hit the button, because they had just seen me vent and I needed to create confusion. They all agreed to vote her first and then vote me, forgetting the number of people left... and I won because my imposter buddy was still alive and that brought us to four people, meaning the imposters won a number victory.

Ahahahaha

Everyone was SO MAD at me, it was wonderful

That's amazing

I played a board game with a similar premise (figure out the spies among the group), and at one point it was painfully obvious that my sister was one of the spies. During the group vote on who was the spy, she guilt-tripped/gas-lighted one of her best friends (not a spy) into voting for sister as not-a-spy. The spies won.

"When have I ever lied to you? You know that we're best friends"

Ah yes, the good old gaslight trick

"Of course I'm not the spy, why would you even consider that"

"Come on, you know me. Would I lie and say I'm not the spy? WOULD I????"