# How do you simplify -1 2/3 + (-2 1/4) ?

Jul 22, 2016

Take a look at the explanation.

#### Explanation:

To make things easier, I would start off by turning those mixed fractions into improper ones.

$- \frac{5}{3} + \left(- \frac{9}{4}\right)$

I would then add them, like I would add any other normal fraction.

First, find the Least Common Denominator (LCD) between the two fractions. I found that by multiplying $- \frac{5}{3}$ by $\frac{4}{4}$ and multiplying $- \frac{9}{4}$ by $\frac{3}{3}$. Why did I do that? Multiplying the fractions by each other's denominators was the easiest way I could get the LCD. So now we have:

$- \frac{5}{3} \cdot \frac{4}{4} + \left(- \frac{9}{4}\right) \cdot \frac{3}{3}$

We multiply the numerators and the denominators and this is what we get:

$- \frac{20}{12} + \left(- \frac{27}{12}\right)$

Add the numerators (but do not add the denominators) and now we have:

$- \frac{47}{12}$

Let's turn this into a mixed fraction (just for the sake of it):

$- 3 \frac{11}{12}$