How do you simplify #-8/33div(-20/39)#?

1 Answer
Astralboy · Stefan V. · EZ as pi
Feb 16, 2017

#26/55#

Explanation:

For a division sign, you can flip the other side of the equation and multiply instead. You will get

#(-8/33) xx (-39/20)#

The negatives cancel out so let's not worry about that. If you look at the #8# and #20#, you can divide both by #2# and get in return a #4# from the #8# and #10# from the #20#.

Then for the #33# and #39#, if you divide both by #3#, you will get an #11# from the #33# and a #13# from the #39#.

But from there, you can take out another #2# from the #4# and #10# to get #2# and #5#.

Multiply the numerators together and the denominators together.

#(8 xx 39)/(33 xx 20) = (cancel8^2xxcancel39^13)/(cancel33^11xxcancel20^5) = (2 xx 13) / (5 xx 11)#

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