This looks hard, but is actually really simple. Try this:
3/8 + 1/4. Give your answer in its simplest form.
First, we need a common denominator, and the easiest way to do this is to multiply the denominators together:
8 x 4 = 32.
So now we need the numerator. We can get this by multiplying the numerator by the denominator of the other fraction, then adding (or subracting, if we were doing that) them together.
3 x 4 = 12
8 x 1 = 8
12 + 8 = 20.
So we have 20/32. Now we need to simplify, and they both divide by 2!
20/32 divided by 2 equals 10/16.
But, they can still divide by 2 (or we could have divided by 4 at the start):
10/16 divided by 2 equals 5/8.
5 is a prime number, so we can't simplify any more.
Remember, if you're subtracting, you just subtract the two numerators instead of adding. Everything else is exactly the same. Use our quick quiz to test yourself on this:
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