We compared fractions using:

• What we know about the size of fractions.
• Benchmark fractions, such as and 1.
• Equivalent fractions.

Example: To compare and , we can reason that:

• is equivalent to , so is less than .
• is equivalent to , so is greater than .
• This means that is greater than . (Or is less than .)

We can also compare by writing equivalent fractions with the same denominator, or a common denominator. For example, to compare and , we can use 12 as the denominator:

Because is greater than , we know that is greater than .