# How do you simplify 5/8 div -1/2?

Mar 20, 2018

See a solution process below:

#### Explanation:

First, we can rewrite this expression as:

$\frac{\frac{5}{8}}{\frac{- 1}{2}}$

Now, we can use this rule for dividing fractions to simplify the expression:

$\frac{\frac{\textcolor{red}{a}}{\textcolor{b l u e}{b}}}{\frac{\textcolor{g r e e n}{c}}{\textcolor{p u r p \le}{d}}} = \frac{\textcolor{red}{a} \times \textcolor{p u r p \le}{d}}{\textcolor{b l u e}{b} \times \textcolor{g r e e n}{c}}$

$\frac{\frac{\textcolor{red}{5}}{\textcolor{b l u e}{8}}}{\frac{\textcolor{g r e e n}{- 1}}{\textcolor{p u r p \le}{2}}} \implies \frac{\textcolor{red}{5} \times \textcolor{p u r p \le}{2}}{\textcolor{b l u e}{8} \times \textcolor{g r e e n}{- 1}} \implies \frac{\textcolor{red}{5} \times \cancel{\textcolor{p u r p \le}{2}} \textcolor{p u r p \le}{1}}{\cancel{\textcolor{b l u e}{8}} \textcolor{b l u e}{4} \times \textcolor{g r e e n}{- 1}} \implies \frac{5}{-} 4 = - \frac{5}{4}$

Mar 20, 2018

$- 1.25$
First, let's forget about the negative sign, and just focus on the numbers. $\frac{5}{8} \setminus \div i \mathrm{de} \frac{1}{2}$= $\frac{5}{8} \cdot 2$=$\frac{5}{4}$=$1.25$. Now we bring the negative sign back in to get $- 1.25$.