Question

Math question on big ideas math the 1/3 confuses me I hate fractions

Answer 1

a simple way to do away with denominators, is we can simply multiply both sides by the LCD, in this case the LCD is 3, so let's multiply both sides by 3.

$\bf 3\left( \cfrac{1}{3}x+y \right)=3(4)\implies x+3y=12\implies 3y=12-x \\\\\\ y=\cfrac{12-x}{3}\implies \stackrel{\textit{distributing the denominator}}{y=\cfrac{12}{3}-\cfrac{x}{3}}\implies y=4-\cfrac{1}{3}x$