The method to divide fractions is to keep the first fraction the same, turn the divide sign into a multiply and turn the second fraction upside down. This is known as multiplying by the reciprocal.

“Who would draw a picture to divide 2/3 by 3/4?” asked Marina Ratner, a professor emerita of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

Ah, math. It’s why I became an English major. But now math is spinning back around and haunting me in the form of my fifth grader. Last night, I found myself dealing with how to multiply fractions as ...