Suppose you want to make an apple pie. You will buy a pound and a half of apples. At the grocery store, the sign says one pound of apples will cost $2. Knowing how to convert whole numbers into fractions will help you find the cost of the apples you need. You can convert $2 into the fraction 
, and you can convert 1.5 pounds into the fraction 
.
How do you translate a whole number into a fraction? The number you want to translate will be the top number (numerator). You will use 1 for the bottom number (denominator). For example, the whole number 38 will become 
when written as a fraction. The number 42 will become the fraction 
.
Imagine that you walk into a bakery and see 3 chocolate cakes. Each cake is cut into 8 slices. You're having a party that night, and you have invited 16 people. So you know you want to buy 16 slices of cake. How many is that in a fraction? It's 
. How many whole cakes should you buy? The fraction 
can be simplified to 
. Now we know that a number over 1 is equal to that whole number. So you should buy 2 whole cakes.
