Question

Find the sum of 5/8 and 1/4

Answer 1

Sum = Addition

Because both fractions have different denominators, we can’t just add them a straight away. So let’s find a common denominator. (One number that both 8 and 4 go into.)

To the find the lowest, we could just multiply 4 and 8 together to get 32. However in this case, this isn’t the lowest common denominator we can use.

In fact, 8 is the lowest, since both 4 and 8 are factors of 8.

So the denominators for both fractions can be:

__ __
8 8

Starting with 5/8’ths, 8 goes into 8 once, so the fraction remains the same (5/8)

With the 1/4, 4 goes into 8 twice, whatever we do to the top, we do to the bottom, so 1 x 2 = 2

This will give us 2/8.

Now both denominators are the same, we can add 5/8 + 2/8 = 7/8

Answer 7/8.

Hope this helps.