“My Life as a Fraction”
Fraction: “I tell you, it’s hard being 9/2 (that’s 9 over 2) because
everyone is always trying to convert you. I mean, I don’t want to
be a Mixed Number, I want be myself. Some people even go so far as to call me 4 and one half!!! Can you imagine that? Once, when I was traveling in a foreign country some people pointed and told
their children, "there goes a 4 point 5".
Interviewer: “But, don’t you feel so, well, I don’t know. I’m looking for the word, let me see, oh yes - complex?”
Fraction: “Hey, my parts may always be equal to the whole, but I always feel like I can be whatever I want.”
Interviewer: “What? How could you be something other than an unsimplified complex
fraction?”
Fraction: “Dude, DUDE, don’t you see the cosmic beauty in it all? I can be 2 ¼ plus 2 ¼. Can you imagine that? I can be two equal parts!”
Interviewer: “Wow! That is quite amazing. It’s like you’re twins or something.”
Fraction: “Oh yeah, baby! I can even be Triplets. That’s right: 1 ½, plus 1 ½, plus
another 1 ½. “
Interviewer: “I don’t know how you do that! It’s like you’re smaller but there are more of you?”
Fraction: “Indeed! I can be many things. In fact, there is probably an INFINITE amount
of combinations that I can take. I’m like a ShapeShifter.”
Interviewer: “I get it now. You could even be 1 plus 2 plus 1 plus ½. Or, 3 plus 1 plus ¼
plus ¼. You sure are flexible!”
Fraction: “It’s all about equality dude! You just need to put that equals sign, =, in between all my variations.”
Interviewer: “So, that sounds pretty cool. You can be whatever you want, as long as it is
equivalent?”
Fraction: “You got it! Anyone can be whatever they want, but they are always themself.”
(written for a math class and copyright in 2009 by Everett Peacock)
