"Fractions" - there I've said it. This word is sure to create a mild sense of panic in most people who have ever been taught maths but not really understood what was going on.

OK..so the next thing you say is "What's the point of learning fractions when we can do everything on our calculators".

If you have a cake to share and each person gets 0.14285714….. (as your calculator will reliably tell you) of the cake, how many people share the cake?

The answer isn't very easy to see, but if you say each person gets a seventh of the cake (as it's written as a fraction) things become a lot clearer. In the same way when dealing with more advanced techniques in maths you will find that knowing the secrets of fractions will enable you to leave other people on the starting blocks.

Simplifying fractions can be a pain, until you get used to calculations with numbers, however at the end of the day makes much more sense than (but both give the same answer 0.875).

To simplify fractions all you need to do is find a number that will divide into the number at the top of the division line and into the number at the bottom of the division line leaving a whole number. (a good knowledge of your times tables will help - remember those?).

Secret: A good number to try first when simplifying is always 2. Note that this will only work if both the top and bottom numbers are even.

e.g. can be divided by 2 on top and bottom to give , now if you know your 3 times table you're onto a winner - you can see that 7 x 3 = 21 and 8 x 3 = 24, so dividing again by 3 you end up with the simplified answer .

I hope that simplifying seems to be reasonably "simple".

Now I'm not going to rant on about lowest common denominators and lowest common multiples etc. as they are just confusing gobbledegook. The easy way to learn how to do calculations with fractions is to see how the process works with an explained example of each:

MULTIPLYING FRACTIONS

Multiplying fractions is the easiest thing to do:

all you do is multiply the two numbers above the division line and the two numbers below the division line. Then you need to simplify the answer: divided by 2 is divide by 2 again to give as your final (simplified) answer.

DIVIDING FRACTIONS

Dividing fractions is almost as easy as multiplying:

Did you spot the trick? - all you do is turn the second fraction upside down and multiply the two together! Simplifying further you can say that the final answer is (two and two fifteenths).

ADDING FRACTIONS

Here you multiply the top of the first fraction by the bottom of the second and add this to the bottom of the first fraction multiplied by the top of the second. This is then all divided by the bottom of the first fraction multiplied by the bottom of the second fraction (this looks complicated written in words - but look how the calculation seems easier to understand in the example above - this shows why symbols are used in maths).

You may need to practice one or two additions of fractions before it clicks and becomes very easy - though it will be worthwhile as understanding of fractions is essential when you later master the secrets of Algebra (another dreaded word - though hopefully not to you!).

And….don't forget to simplify - in this case the answer simplifies to (one and seven twelfths).

SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS

Once you have got adding fractions sussed, it's easy to subtract fractions, in fact the only difference is using - instead of +.

e.g.

and simplifying becomes .

So…what is there to worry about???