INSTRUCTIONS

The following picture was made from Multiply Fractions:

The parts of a multiplication example are the first factor, the second factor, and the product.

When the program starts, you will be asked to identify the first factor. The first factor is indicated by the red arrow, which shows the horizontal distance along the picture. You will then be asked to identify the second factor. The second factor is indicated by the blue arrow, which shows the vertical distance from the bottom along theleft of the image. The second factor in this program will always be 1, 2, or 3. The program will not continue unless each factor is correctly identified. You will then be asked to multiply each factor for the product.

You can see from the picture that the first factor is 1 1/3 units in length and the second factor is 3 units in length. The product can be seen as the number of square units within the horizontal and vertical distances, indicated by the yellow rectangle. You can see 3 complete units plus 3 parts, each 1/3 of a unit. Combine the 3 whole square units and each of the part units for a product of 4.

The yellow rectangle combines all the units for the product and will appear if the product is entered correctly.

To calculate the product,  first write each factor in fraction form as shown in the example below. Then multiply the numerators of each factor for the numerator of the product and the denominators of each factor for the denominator of the product. You may enter the product in fraction form or whole or mixed number form, so 3/1 or 3 are both acceptable.

Written out, the example would look like this:

Since the second factor in each example of multiply fractions is a whole number,  you may use another method to calculate the product as shown in the example below. Multiply the whole number part of 1 1/3 by the second factor 3 and then the fraction part of 1 1/3 by the second factor 3. Then add the two numbers for the product.

Written out, the example would look like this:

As you can see, you are distributing the factor 3 over the whole number and the fraction part of 1 1/3.