Adding Fractions
Adding fractions is easier than you think. If you understand what
improper fractions
are and the lesson about
comparing fractions
,this lesson will be like a piece of cake. Well, almost!
There are two important things you need to know: First, you cannot add the denominators; you can only add the numerators Second, you can only add the numerator when the denominator is the same for both fractions. Your denominator will stay the same. Having said that, when adding fractions and the denominators are not the same, you need to find equivalent fractions that give a common denominator for both fractions Let us illustrate what we just said with examples. What is the answer for 3/2 + 1/2 ? Observe that both fractions have the same denominator, which is 2.That means you can add the numerators and your denominator will stay the same. 3+1 =4 The answer is 4/2 Let's add now 2/3 + 3/6 Notice that the denominator is not the same for both fractions, so we cannot add 2 and 4 to get 6. Even if you did, what denominator will you choose for an answer? Is it going to be the 3 or the 6? Remember that we cannot add denominators when adding fractions. These questions are not meant to confuse you, but to show you the importance of making sure that both fractions have a common denominator before you add the numerators. If you multiply the numerator and the denominator for the first fraction by 2, you will get 4/6 4/6 is an equivalent fraction for 2/3 and it has the same denominator as 3/6. What you are adding now is 4/6 + 3/6. add 4 and 3 and your answer is 7/6. Our final example will be to add 3/5 and 2/4 Notice that it is not easy to multiply one denominator by a number to get the second as we did before. However, if you multiply the numerator and denominator for 3/5 by 4 and multiply the numerator and denominator for 2/4 by 5, you will get 12/20 and 10/20 Just add 12 and 10 and your answer is 22/20. Adding mixed numbers: Let's just do it with a couple of examples 2 1/3 + 4 4/3 Whichever you want to do first is perfectly fine, but you have to add whole numbers and the fractions separately. 2+4 =6 1/3 + 4/3 is 5/3 The answer is 6 5/3. Feel free to convert this to improper fractions if you like Add 3 3/5 and 7 2/4 add 3 and 7 to get 10 add 3/5 and 2/4 to get 22/20 The answer is 10 22/20 Fractions|
Improper fractions|
Comparing fractions|
Adding fractions|
Multiplying fractions|
Dividing fractions|
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