Are 1 over 5 and 4 over 20 equivalent?

Answer 1

Yes. A good way to help you determine this in the future is to divide the top number by the bottom number. For example, 1/5 is the same as 1 divided by 5, which gives you .2 and 4/20 is the same as 4 divided by 20, which also results in .2 (two tenths or 2/10). If you will note, the 2/10 can be reduced to 1/5, which is one of the numbers in your question.

Another way to determine if two fractions are equivalent is to use the"cross product rule". For this one, let's use a different set of fractions: 2/3 and 4/6:

2/3 and 4/6, you would multiply the numerator of the first fraction (2) by the denominator of the second fraction (6), which would be 2 x 6 = 12. You then do the same with the second fraction, which would be 4 x 3 = 12. Since you get the same answer with both, you know the two fractions are equivalent.

Let'sdo the same with 1/4 and 2/3:

Multiply 1 x 3 = 3

Multiply 2 x 4 = 8

Since the two numbers are not the same, you know that they are not equivalent.