Extending fraction bars

Can you compare these bars with each other and express their lengths as fractions of the black bar?

Problem

This activity follows on from More Fraction Bars.

Look at these different coloured bars:

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Various equal width bars. Black: 40 squares long, representing the number one and two thirds. The following are bar names, along with their lengths: A 24. B 36. C 20. D 28. E 32.

You might like to download a printable version of them here .

Put the bars in size order - can you do it without cutting them out?

Now focus on this bar:

 

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Black bar representing the fraction one and two thirds. It has length 40 units.

 

This bar represents one whole and two thirds, or the number 1$\frac{2}{3}$. You might find it easier to think of it as a bar which is 'one whole' that has been stuck to a bar two-thirds the size of it.

We are thinking about all the other coloured bars as fractions of this bar, so we are thinking about them as fractions of 1$\frac{2}{3}$.

For example, look at Bar A below:

 

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Bar A drawn underneath the black bar.

 

Drawing lines helps us measure it against the black bar:

 

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Lines are added in fifths along the black bar, to help compare its length to that of Bar A.

 

What fraction of the black bar is Bar A?

Go through each of the other coloured bars and compare them to the black bar. What fraction of 1$\frac{2}{3}$ is each bar?

Write down your ideas for each bar. For example, you could write:

Bar A is three fifths of the black bar.

or

Bar A represents $\frac{3}{5}$ of 1$\frac{2}{3}$.

or

Bar A represents a whole.

Can you work out how we came up with these three ideas?

Can you find different ideas for what fraction of 1$\frac{2}{3}$ each bar represents?