How do you simplify #4/5-4/7#?

1 Answer
Jacobi J.
Jun 18, 2018

#8/35#

Explanation:

Whenever we do addition or subtraction with fractions, we must have a common denominator.

The easiest way to achieve a common denominator is to multiply the top and bottom of the first by #7#, and the top and bottom of the second by #5#. We get

#4/5(7/7)-4/7(5/5)#

Notice, we are not changing the value since we are essentially multiplying by #1#. We now have

#28/35-20/35#

Now that we have common denominators, we can just subtract the numerators. We'll get

#8/35#

Since the numerator and denominator have no common factors, this fraction is in simplest form.

Hope this helps!

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