'Fractioning' Fractions

Algebra Level 1

Alice stumbled on a another question that puzzled her:

1 2 \frac{1}{2} times 2 3 \frac{2}{3} times 3 4 \frac{3}{4} ... 98 99 \frac{98}{99} times 99 100 \frac{99}{100}

She has a clue on a strip of paper which says: LEAVE YOUR ANSWER IN DECIMAL NOTATION

What is the answer then?


The answer is 0.01.

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1 solution

Mohammad Farhat
Aug 8, 2018

Lets 'complexify' the fractions by writing it down using simple operations:

1 2 \frac{1}{2} = 1/2 , 2 3 \frac{2}{3} = 2/3 , 3 4 \frac{3}{4} = 3/4 , ... 98 99 \frac{98}{99} = 98/99 , 99 100 \frac{99}{100} = 99/100

/ means division and * means multiplication

Our result of 'complexifying' the fractions should be 1/2 2/3 3/4..98/99*99/100

Observe that from the first two fractions it is 1÷2*2÷3 and we notice the 2's get cancelled because they are the same number with an inverse operation. So we get 1 b l a n k \frac{1}{blank} times b l a n k 3 \frac{blank}{3} and following the same procedure we cancel the 3's , the 4's and so on until we get 1 as the only numerator left and 100 as the only denominator left so we can put the one above the 100 like this 1 100 \frac{1}{100} which is equivalent to 0.01 and that is the answer.

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