If you have fractions with the same denominator, subtract the numerators: If you're wondering how to subtract fractions, and you've read through the previous section How do you add fractions, we have some good news for you: it's pretty much the same! If you're still wondering how adding fractions works, maybe this visual will help? Of course, our fraction calculator deals with all of these scenarios. ➽ 13/ 5 + 3/ 2 = 26/ 10 + 15/ 10 = 41/ 10įinally, you can convert your result back into a mixed fraction: That's your new numerator – write it on top of your denominator:Īnalogically, you can find out that 1 1/ 2 = 3/ 2.ĭo the standard addition of fractions with uneven denominators: Multiply the whole number by the denominator: One solution for this kind of problem is to convert the mixed fraction to an improper fraction and sum it up as usual. You want to add two mixed fractions – e.g., 2 3/ 5 and 1 1/ 2 Now that your fractions have the same denominator, you can add them: Your second fraction already has its denominator equal to 10: So, you should multiply the fraction with the denominator equal to 5 (our 1/5) by 2 to get 10 (remember that you must multiply both top and bottom numbers): Then, you need to expand each fraction to have this common denominator as its bottom number: You can use, for example, LCM – the least common multiple to find the common number of your two denominators: LCM(5,10) = 10 Another option is to multiply your denominators and reduce the fraction later. This is a bit more of a complicated case – to add these fractions, you need to find the common denominator. The fractions have unlike denominators – e.g., 2/ 5 and 3/ 10 This is the most straightforward case all you need to do is to add numerators (top numbers) together and leave the denominator as is, e.g.: The denominator (bottom number) is the same in both fractions – e.g., 3/ 5 and 1/ 5 What it shows you are values multiplied by different variations of fractions equal to “1”.When it comes to adding fractions, there are three scenarios: The table below lists some common fractions and their equivalents. If you remember to use the cross-multiply method, you should not have any problems verifying equivalent fractions. Okay, let’s do one with numbers where the fractions are not equivalent… As you can see by this example, 1/2 is not an equivalent fraction of 2/3. The graphic below shows you how to cross multiply… If they are equal, then the two fractions are equivalent fractions. Now compare the two answers to see if they are equal. A simple way to look at how to check for equivalent fractions is to do what is called “cross-multiply”, which means multiple the numerator of one fraction by the denominator of the other fraction. So we know that 3/4 is equivalent to 9/12, because 3×12=36 and 4×9=36. 3/4 is equivalent (equal) to 9/12 only if the product of the numerator ( 3) of the first fraction and the denominator ( 12) of the other fraction is equal to the product of the denominator ( 4) of the first fraction and the numerator ( 9) of the other fraction. Now let’s plug the numbers into the Rule for equivalent fractions to be sure you have it down “cold”. That sounds like a mouthful, so let’s try it with numbers… What this Rule says is that two fractions are equivalent (equal) only if the product of the numerator ( a) of the first fraction and the denominator ( d) of the other fraction is equal to the product of the denominator ( b) of the first fraction and the numerator ( c) of the other fraction.Ī product simply means you multiply. The rule for equivalent fractions can be a little tough to explain, but hang in there, we will clear things up in just a bit. So, let’s look at the Rule to check to see if two fractions are equivalent or equal. And yes grasshopper, 2/4 is an equivalent fraction for 4/8 too.As you already know, we are nuts about rules. Therefore, we can say that 1/2 is equal to 2/4, and 1/2 is also equal to 4/8. Take a look at the four circles above.Can you see that the one “1/2”, the two “1/4” and the four “1/8” take up the same amount of area colored in orange for their circle?Well that means that each area colored in orange is an equivalent fraction or equal amount. So we can say that 1/2 is equivalent (or equal) to 2/4.ĭon’t let equivalent fractions confuse you! The best way to think about equivalent fractions is that they are fractions that have the same overall value.įor example, if we cut a pie exactly down the middle, into two equally sized pieces, one piece is the same as one half of the pie.Īnd if another pie (the same size) is cut into 4 equal pieces, then two pieces of that pie represent the same amount of pie that 1/2 did. Equivalent fractions represent the same part of a whole
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