Finding halves and quarters

Imagine cutting up a pizza to share out. If you cut the pizza straight down the middle, you would have 2 equal pieces. You would have cut the pizza into halves. This is exactly the same as dividing or sharing the pizza into two pieces. Halving an amount is the same as dividing that amount by 2.

e.g. 1/2 of 48 would be 48 ÷ 2 = 24.

Now imagine taking each slice of pizza and cutting it in half again. You would have 4 equal pieces; in other words, you have split the pizza into quarters. So once you have found 1/2 of an amount, you can quickly find 1/4 by halving again.

e.g. 1/2 of 48 = 24 
Then 1/2 of 24 = 12
So 1/4 of 48 = 12.

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Once you have found 1/4 of an amount, you can easily find 3/4 by adding 1/2 and 1/4 together.

e.g. 3/4 of 48 = 24 + 12 = 36.

50% is the same as 1/2 and 25% is the same as 1/4, so you can also use this strategy to find these simple percentages.

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