Question

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

Answer 1

`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!