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Equal Parts in Shapes Introduction

How can shapes be partitioned into equal areas?

Goal:

Goal:

Daniel and his friends are running in a relay race. He’s trying to explain the race to his mom, so he draws her a picture. He starts by drawing a rectangle.

Daniel explaining the relay race to his mom. He draws a rectangle to show the area of the race.
A rectangle

Then he draws a vertical line in the middle of the rectangle, splitting it into 2 equal parts.

A rectangle with a vertical line at the center of the rectangle dividing it in half.

He draws another vertical line, splitting the left side of the rectangle into 2 equal parts.

A rectangle with a vertical line at the center of the rectangle dividing it in half. One half of the rectangle diving the half of the rectangle into a quarter of the rectangle.

He does the same thing to the right side of the rectangle.

A rectangle with a vertical lines dividing it into quarters.

Now he has 4 equal parts. In the first three parts of the rectangle, he writes the names of his friends who are racing. In the last part, he writes his own name.

A rectangle with a vertical lines dividing it into quarters.Each quarter has a name in it. Eric, Jose, Andre, Daniel.

Daniel’s mom looks at his drawing and says, “Oh, I get it. You each run \(\Large\frac{1}{4}\) of the race.” “Huh?” Daniel says. “I mean that you all run the same distance in the race.” Daniel’s mom explains. “Oh, yeah.” Daniel agrees.

Question

What did Daniel’s mom mean when she said they each run \(\Large\frac{1}{4}\) of the race?

There are 4 parts to the race, and each kid is running 1 of the 4 parts. So, each kid is running \(\Large\frac{1}{4}\) of the race.