How to find the reciprocal for a number: 1/6

To find the reciprocal for a number, like 1/6, we flip the numerator and denominator. We end up with 6/1 as the reciprocal for 1/6.

We could also convert the reciprocal, 6/1, to a decimal. This would be 6.

The reciprocal is also called the multiplicative inverse. So we can check to see if we have the correct reciprocal for 1/6 by multiplying it by its reciprocal. This should be equal to 1.

1/6 x 6/1 = 6/6= 1

Note that the reciprocal of 1/6 is not equal to 6/1. They are different numbers.

For whole numbers, (2, 3 …) we can consider these to be divided by one. For example, 2 can be considered to be 2/1. This makes it possible to find the reciprocal by flipping the numerator and denominator.