Which is smaller 3 1/2 or 3 7/8

3 1/2 is smaller. To find out the answer to this type of problem, you want the denominators of both of your fractions to be the same. You do this by finding the least common multiple. In this case, you want to get from 2 to 8, and to do this, you would multiply both the top and bottom of the fraction 1/2 by 4. 1x4=4 and 2x4=8, so your new fraction becomes 4/8. you don't need to change the 3s into improper fractions because they are the same number.

4/8 is less than 7/8, so 3 4/8 is also less than 3 7/8, meaning 3 1/2 is less than 3 7/8 because 3 4/8 and 3 1/2 are equivalent or have the same value

You can cross multiply so you have 1/2 and 7/8 so fist you would multiplynumerator and denominator but going diagonally so it would be 1*8 which is 8 and that is for the 1st fraction then yoy would do the sane to the other fraction which yoy would multiply 2*7 which is 14 and 14 is bigger then 8 so the snaller one is 3 and 1/2