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Fractions

Table of Contents

Description:

Fraction questions require you to have a basic understanding of how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. They also require you to know the difference between the numerator and the denominator.

Approach:

Make sure to write fractional arithmetic down completely, and to use the FRAC button in your calculator to compute any arithmetic.
Be careful to use all appropriate parentheses.

1) Adding and Subtracting Fractions

If the two fractions already have the same denominator, you can simply add the numerators.

[Image: Diagram of adding numerators]

If the fractions do not have the same denominator, you have to find a common denominator.

For example:

[Image: Diagram for common denominator problem]

Here, our common denominator will be 12. We must multiply the numerator and denominator by whatever is necessary to make the denominator 12.

[Image: Diagram for applying common denominator]

[Image: Diagram for applying common denominator]

Then, we can add the fractions together. This gives us the following:

$[Image: Diagram for adding fractions]$

2) Add or subtract the following fractions:

3) Multiplying and Dividing Fractions

To multiply fractions, multiply straight across:

For example:

$[Image: Diagram on how to multiple fractions]$

To divide fractions, you must flip the second fraction over (take the reciprocal of the second fraction) and then multiply straight across.

For example:

$[Image: Diagram on how to divide fractions]$

4) Multiply or divide the following fractions:

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