A pizza is cut into 8 equal slices. What fraction is one slice?

• A. 1/8
• B. 1/4
• C. 1/6
• D. 1/3

Answer: (A)

The thing to grasp is how fractions describe parts of a whole. The bottom number tells you into how many equal pieces the whole is divided. The pizza is cut into eight equal pieces, so the whole is eight parts. The top number tells you how many of those parts you have. One slice is one part, so you have 1 out of 8 parts: 1/8.

If you used 1/4, that would mean two of the eight slices (since 1/4 equals 2/8), or a different way the pizza could be divided. But with eight equal slices, one slice is exactly 1/8.