Question

How do you simplify `7/8 + 1/5`?

Answer 1

`=> 43/40`

Explanation:

We need to establish a common denominator.

To do this, we multiply each fraction by `1` because we do not want to change the expression that we have. We multiply by a specific form of the number `1` in order to obtain the common denominator.

`=>7/color(blue)8 + 1/color(red)5`

`=7/8*color(red)5/color(red)5 + 1/5*color(blue)8/color(blue)8`

notice how both fractions are multiplied by `1`, which means they are still the same value. However, we are changing the numerator and denominator of each fraction in order to be able to combine them.

`=35/40 + 8/40`

Now that the denominators are the same, we can combine the fractions

`=(35+8)/40`

`= 43/40`

Now we check to see if this can be simplified. It cannot, so that is our solution.