Examples of situations that favor estimations include planning casual events (roughly gauging supplies needed), expressing an idea verbally (getting the idea across without the nitty-gritty details) or some cooking situations like stews, where exact measurements aren’t needed in the final product.
Smaller numbers are generally easier to work with than big numbers. If all of the numbers included share a common denominator, it’s possible to divide them by that root accordingly. For example, 4/16 and 6/8 could be divided by 4 and 2 respectively. This would result in 1/4 and 3/4. Generally speaking, if both the top and bottom of your fraction are even, you can divide both sides by 2. Both sides will be only half as big as before, and the proportion will remain the same. Make sure you keep both sides of your fraction whole while dividing. Making fractions out of fractions by dividing denominators improperly will make your fraction much more frustrating to deal with.
“Rounding” a fraction means bringing it slightly up or down so that the fraction may be simplified. For example, 7/16 may be a tricky fraction to visualize mentally, but if you round it up slightly to 8/16, it becomes exactly half (1/2) of the whole.
Rounding your fractions into smaller portions (like eighths or sixteenths) may be more difficult depending on your level of skill, but you’ll find your answer is closer to the real answer. [4] X Research source
Although it may go without saying, you won’t need to do anything to fractions that already fall on one of your rounding options.
A 7/16 fraction could be rounded up to 8/16 (or 1/2). 7/16 may still be seen roughly as a half, but you should remember that the simplified version is slightly more than the real number. A mathematical way of expressing this would be: (1/2 - 1/16).
For example, a 12/16 fraction may look bigger than 7/8 in a purely numerical form, but a simple graph of the two next to each other will easily show the latter is bigger than the former. The two main types of visually-illustrated fractions are line and circle graphs. [7] X Research source Lines are best for measurements, whereas circles (or “pie charts”) are best for showing proportions.
Different proportions can be indicated by different shades or colours. For example, two shaded thirds of a pie circle indicates a 2/3 fraction. It’s a good idea to play around with a few visual models using the same set of fractions. This will show you how different models can represent the same thing.
By illustrating two or more proportions next to one another, you’ll have an easy visual reference as to which fractions are biggest, and which are smallest. The human eye will be able to identify the distinction almost without thinking, so it’s a nice way to communicate it in clear terms. [9] X Research source
You can check your answers by placing a ruler and measuring the appropriate dimensions of your items after the fact.
