A fraction (from the Latin fractus, broken) is a number that can represent part of a whole.The earliest fractions were reciprocals of integers, symbols representing one half, one third, one quarter, and so on. A much later development were the common or "vulgar" fractions which are still used today, and which consist of a numerator and a denominator, the numerator representing a number of equal parts and the denominator telling how many of those parts make up a whole. An example is 3/4, in which the numerator, 3, tells us that the fraction represents 3 equal parts, and the denominator, 4, tells us that 4 parts make up a whole.