Question

Use mental math to compare 5/16 and 13/18. Explain how you arrived at your answer. (Practice Question)

Answer 1

16 is close to 18
but 13 is much bigger than 5
therefore 13/18 > 5/16

Answer 2

Alternatively, what you want to do is make them have the same denominate, so that you can compare the numerator. The LCM of 16 and 18 is 144.

So you get: 45/144 and 117/144
Obviously the second one is larger.