What is 1/5 of 40?

What is 1/5 of 40?

To find 1/5 of 40, you can multiply 40 by 1/5:

40 * 1/5 = (40/1) * (1/5) = 40/5 = 8.

So, 1/5 of 40 is equal to 8. This means that if you take 40 and divide it into five equal parts, each part would be equal to 8.

Finding a Fractional Amount of a Whole Number

Calculating a fractional part of a whole number is a common math operation. It involves taking a number and determining what one or more fractional pieces of it equal.

Let’s look at finding 1/5 of 40 to demonstrate this concept.

Understanding Fractions

Fractions represent part of a whole. Specifically:

• The denominator indicates how many equal parts the whole is divided into
• The numerator indicates how many of those parts we want

For 1/5:

• The 5 means to split the whole into 5 equal parts
• The 1 means we want just 1 of those 5 parts

Finding 1/5 of 40

To find 1/5 of 40:

1. Divide 40 by the denominator 5 -> 40 / 5 = 8
2. The numerator of 1/5 is 1, so we only want 1 of the 5 parts -> Take just 1 of the parts = 8

Therefore, 1/5 of 40 is 8.

We can visualize splitting 40 into 5 groups of 8, and taking just 1 group of 8.

Checking Our Work

We can multiply to confirm:

1/5 * 40 = 8

Since 1/5 of 40 is 8, this verifies that taking 1/5 of 40 does equal 8.

This process works for finding any fractional amount of a whole number. Understanding fractions as representatives of part-whole relationships provides the logic we need.

In summary, to take a fraction of a whole number, divide the whole number by the denominator to determine the size of each part, then take the numerator amount of parts.