How to Add Fractions
Although math may have been your least favorite subject in school, your math teacher always told you, there will be times in the real world where you have to perform basic math. Fractions may seem confusing, but once you understand how they work, they are actually quite simple to work with.
Instructions :
- Before you attempt to add a fraction, it’s important to understand the three terms used to describe fractions. The term numerator is used to describe the first number in the fraction (or the number above the fraction line), while the term denominator is used to describe the second number in the fraction (or the number below the fraction line). The third term is lowest common denominator, which is frequently abbreviated as LCD. This is the lowest number that all of the denominators of the fractions can be divided into without creating a remainder (for example, the LCD of 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 is 12).
- Now that you understand the three terms used to describe fractions, you can begin the process of adding fractions. The first step is to identify whether the denominators of the fractions you are adding are the same or different. If the denominators are the same, proceed to the next step. If they are not the same, skip to Step Five.
- When the denominators are the same, add the numerators together and maintain the original denominator.
- If the fraction cannot be reduced (such as 7/8), you are done. However, if the fraction can be reduced (such as 6/9, which can be reduced to 2/3), you need to fully reduce the fraction before it is complete.
- When the denominators are different, you need to find the LCD of the fractions before they can be added together.
- To find the LCD, multiply all of the denominators together (for example, 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 would be 2 x 3 x 4 = 24).
- The number you get when you multiply all of the denominators together may be the LCD, but first you need to make sure that there’s not a smaller number that all of the denominators can be divided into without creating a remainder (in this case, the LCD of 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 can be reduced to 12).
- Once you have the LCD, you need to look at how many times the LCD can be divided by each denominator (continuing with the above example, 1/2 = 6, 1/3 = 4, 1/4= 3).
- Assign the LCD to each of the fractions (1/12 + 1/12 + 1/12).
- Multiply each of the numbers you came up with in Step Eight with the appropriate numerator (1/12 x 6 = 6/12, 1/12 x 4 = 4/12, 1/12 x 3 = 3/12).
- Now that you have the same denominator for each fraction and the numerators have been adjusted accordingly, follow Steps Three and Four to add and reduce the fraction (to complete the example, 6/12 + 4/12 + 3/12 = 13/12, which cannot be reduced).
