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Common Denominator: What Is A Denominator?
Common Denominator: What Is A Denominator?
Common Denominator: What Is A Denominator?
What is a Denominator?
The denominator is the bottom number in a fraction.
It shows how many equal parts the item is divided into.
Why is it Important?
Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Before we can add or subtract fractions, the fractions need to have
a common denominator (in other words the denominators must be the
same).
Simplifying Fractions
Simplifying (or reducing) fractions means to make the fraction as simple
as possible.
Why say four-eighths (48) when we really mean half (12) ?
4
/8
==>
(Four-Eighths)
/4
(Two-Quarters)
Method 1
==>
/2
(One-Half)
Try to evenly divide (only whole number answers) both the top and
bottom of the fraction by 2, 3, 5, 7 ,... etc, until we can't go any further.
24
12
=
108
6
=
54
2
=
27
2
=
35
7
5
2. And because they now have the same denominator, we can add them:
In One Step!
We could do those two things in one step like this:
Example: What is
2
4
+
/3
/5
25 + 34
=
10 + 12
=
35
22
=
15
(Note: "a" was 2, "b" was 3, "c" was 4 and "d" was 5.)
15