NCERT Solutions for Class 4th Maths Chapter 5 Equal parts and children’s claims — Let Us Do
Book page 78 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Bablu is playing with square shapes. He wants to cut them in such a way that each piece is equal in size. Circle the squares which have been cut into equal parts. Write the fraction for the shaded part, whenever possible.Bablu’s four squares. The green part is shaded in each one.
Answer
Only square (a) is cut into equal pieces. Its shaded part is 1/6.
Bablu’s four squares. The green part is shaded in each one.
Square
Cut into equal parts?
Fraction of the shaded part
(a)
Yes
1/6
(b)
No
Cannot be written
(c)
No
Cannot be written
(d)
No
Cannot be written
Square (a) is circled, because all six of its pieces are the same size.
(a) The square is first cut into 3 strips of the same width. The zig-zag line inside each strip cuts it into two equal pieces. So there are 6 equal pieces, and the shaded one is 1/6.
(b) The plus-shape in the middle and the step-shaped green piece are clearly different in size.
(c) The three tall strips are not the same size as the wide strip at the bottom.
(d) The long thin green piece is much smaller than the other pieces.
Why it happens: A fraction can be written only when every piece is the same size. If the pieces differ, saying “one out of four” would not be fair.
Check it yourself: Trace square (a), cut out the six pieces and place them on top of one another. They match.
Q2.
Check if the children’s claim below about the shaded parts of each of the pictures is correct. Circle the ones which you think are correct, cross out the ones which are not correct. You can draw additional lines to make the parts equal. Discuss your thinking. Ameena says: 1/3, Kishore says: 1/4 (picture a) | Perry says: 1/6, Kunj says: 1/3 (picture b) | Balu says: 1/5, Gita says: 1/4 (picture c)The three pictures the children are talking about. In each one the green part is the shaded part.
Answer
Only Kishore is correct. Circle Kishore’s 1/4 and cross out all the others.
The three pictures. The green part is the shaded part the children are talking about.
Picture (a) — Ameena 1/3, Kishore 1/4
Picture (a) with one extra blue line drawn across the right half. Now all four pieces are equal.
The straight line down the middle makes 2 halves
The line across cuts the left half into 2 equal pieces
Draw the same line across the right half → 4 equal pieces
The green piece is 1 of them → 1/4
So Kishore is right. Ameena counted 3 pieces, but those 3 pieces were not equal.
Picture (b) — Perry 1/6, Kunj 1/3: both wrong
The circle does have 6 strips, but look at them — the top strip is thin and the middle strips are fat.
Since the strips are not equal, the green top strip is not 1/6, and it is not 1/3 either.
To make sixths of a circle, cut 6 slices from the centre, like a cake.
6 equal slices → one slice is 1/6
The right way to cut a circle into six equal parts.
Picture (c) — Balu 1/5, Gita 1/4: both wrong
The big triangle is not cut into equal pieces at all. The green triangle, the rest of the rectangle and the two side pieces are all different sizes.
So we cannot call the green part 1/5 or 1/4.
To get quarters of a triangle, join the middle points of its three sides. That makes 4 equal small triangles.
A triangle cut into 4 equal triangles by joining the middle points of its sides. One of them is 1/4.
Why it happens: A fraction always counts equal parts. Before writing any fraction we must first check that every piece is the same size.
Tip: The book says you may draw extra lines. Use them to turn unequal pieces into equal ones, as we did in picture (a).