Online fractions and mixed numbers calculator

Online 3 fractions and mixed numbers calculator
Alexander Bell, NY

Proliferation of the Internet caused a tectonic shift in the whole education paradigm. Traditional “paper-pencil” educational tool of trades (“they are so XIX century” as per the modern urban jargon) are facing increased competition from their “keyboard-browser” counterparts. Online educational technologies could greatly benefit the school kids and the entire nation, reducing the overall cost, paper waste and corresponding carbon footprint of public education.

Plenty of sophisticated “digitized” educational resources are currently available on the Internet at discounted rates or even free of charge; they include online school math calculators and problem solvers, collectively referred in a context of this article as simply calculators. Presented as a web-based software applications, such calculators are universally accessible via huge variety of Internet-enabled digital platforms, ranging from powerful stationary desktop computers to the portable notebooks/netbooks and even ultra-portable palm-sized devices, like the Apple iPhone™, iPod Touch or Microsoft Zune HD. 

Many modern online calculators adhere to the concept of “thin client” web applications, which means that they are extensively using the tremendous computational power of remote web servers to perform the complex calculations, thus removing the burden of heavy number crunching from the local devices, which could have comparatively low computational capabilities (e.g., SmartPhones™, media-players and other palm-size mobile platforms). This architectural solution provides the exceptional performance and accuracy (up to 19 digits!) of online software calculators running on any mobile Internet-connected devices, which is practically unparalleled among the commercial hardware calculators.

Following is the example of sophisticated 3 fractions calculator iFC-3, topping the Google and Yahoo search list, is available online free of charge at: www.webinfocentral.com/MATH/Fractions.aspx. This popular calculator is capable of performing arithmetic operations on 3 fractions or mixed numbers simultaneously. Another version of mobile fractions calculator, which is customized for reduced screen-size devices (iPod, Zune HD) is available at: http://www.webinfocentral.com/Mobile/Fractions.aspx . Fractions calculator could operate in two different modes, selectable by user: 2 fractions or 3 fractions. Results are presented as a fraction in reduced form (lowest terms); improper fractions are automatically converted to corresponding mixed numbers. Decimal equivalents are calculated for all fractions, including the original and result ones.

Couple words about fractions: fraction is essentially a number presented as the ratio of two integers, e.g.: 2/3, 1/4, 11/5, or in symbolic form: a/b, where a is called numerator and b is called denominator. If numerator is less than the denominator then the fraction is called proper or vulgar fraction; otherwise the fraction is called improper one. Any improper fraction could be presented as a mixed number, containing the integer and regular fraction. For example, 2/3, 32/33 are the proper fractions, while 3/2 is an example of improper fractions; the latter could be presented as mixed number 1 1/2. 

Practical calculations, pertinent to the example: 1/3 * 1 1/2 +3/4, which contains fractions and mixed numbers, could be performed online in several simple steps as following:

Step 1. Start the PC or any Internet-enabled mobile notebook/netbook, open web browser and navigate it to the online fractions calculator web page.The users of mobile devices with reduced screen size (SmartPhone, iPod Touch, Zune HD) should instead navigate the web browser to the mobile fractions calculator .

Step 2. Enter the 1st fraction or mixed number into the corresponding text box titled 'Fraction1'. In our example it should be a regular fraction 1/3.

Step 3. Select the arithmetic operator (in this example it is a multiplication operator “*”) using the drop down control, located just below the text box (marked with little triangle pointing downward).

Step 4. Enter the 2nd fraction or mixed number into the corresponding text box titled. In our example it should be a mixed number 1 1/2.

Step 5. Select the second arithmetic operation (“+”) using the lower drop down on the screen.

Step 6. Enter the 3rd fraction or mixed number into the corresponding text box titled ‘Fraction3’. In our example it should be a regular fraction 3/4. Note: in case you do not have a 3rd fraction, then just leave this text box blank.

Step 7. Click on the screen button marked with "=" sign to get the result as mixed number1 1/4 and corresponding decimal equivalent: 1.25. And voilà (that's it)!

Online educational resources: calculators and math problem solvers

1. Online 3 Fractions Calculator (#1 on Google and Yahoo)
2. Online Linear Equation Solver
3. Online Quadratic Equation Solver
4. Online System of Linear Equation Solver
5. Online Statistics Calculator
6. Online Prime Factorization Calculator
7. Online Combinatorics Calculator

Online Mobile Calculators (optimized for Apple iPod Touch, iPhone, Microsoft Zune HD, etc.)

• Mobile 3 Fractions Calculator
• Mobile Quadratic Equation Solver
• Mobile System of Linear Equation Solver
• Mobile Prime Factorization Calculator 

Copyright© 2009 Alexander Bell