What fraction is the yellow rod of the orange rod? 

Use this picture to help you. Note that it only uses orange and yellow rods.


You might like to use the interactivity further down this page to help you answer the following problems:

Using as many brown and red rods as you like, but no rods of any other colours, work out what fraction the red rod is of the brown one.



Using as many red and orange rods as you like, but no rods of any other colours, work out what fraction the red rod is of the orange one.






Given an unlimited supply of any two differently coloured rods, can you find a general rule to work out what fraction the shorter rod is of the longer one?

You may like to explore this by using the pairs of colours suggested below as starting points.

Dark green and blue:

 

Pink and orange:

 

Light green and orange:

 

Why does your rule work?

Now, looking back at the different pairs of rods you have explored, can you find a way to express the longer rod as a fraction of the shorter rod?