Word 2002
Professional Letter - Math Activity
A Webtask for adult learners


Every document has a choice of size and orientation: portrait or landscape. When a document prints, it will assume you are using the most common paper size. It will be 8.5 inches wide by 11 inches long (portrait orientation)

 or 8.5 inches high by 11 inches wide (landscape). 

A letter is written in portrait orientation, so you don't have to change that option. The automatic selections in a document are called "default." The default orientation is portrait.

EXERCISE 1: Find the total area for the page. To measure the space of any rectangular space, multiply the length by the width. Write the answer in the text box below. Your answer will be expressed in square inches (in2). That means that you could fill the space with that many squares that were one inch long and 1inch wide.

It's easy to multiply 8.5 by 11 inches if you know how to place decimal points. How could we get the same answer by using fractions instead of decimals?

Calculate the answer with me.

Let's write 8.5 as a fraction instead of a decimal.

 8.5 = 8˝ 

Now we need to change the mixed number into a single fraction. To do that, we multiply and add.

All whole numbers can be expressed as a fraction by dividing it by 1. Example:

So let's multiply the sides again, using a fraction and whole numbers (mixed numbers).

 8˝ X 11

The area of the flyer is 93 square inches.

We got the same answer, of course. Go to some of the sites below and practice multiplying fractions with mixed numbers.

http://www.visualfractions.com/ 

http://www.funbrain.com/fract/ - Fractions game.

http://www.aaamath.com/fra.html - Each page has an explanation, interactive practice and challenge games about fractions.

http://www.kidsolr.com/math/fractions.html - Explanations with games.

Funded by the Colorado Department of Education through the Cortez Adult Education Program. All rights reserved.
ŠUnlimited Learning, 2004

Leecy Wise, author