Math Calculators, Lessons and Formulas

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Question

Answer

$$\dfrac{2}{4}-\dfrac{1}{3}=\dfrac{1}{6}$$

Explanation

Tap the blue circles to see an explanation.

$$ \begin{aligned}\frac{2}{4}-\frac{1}{3}& \xlongequal{ \color{blue}{ \text{\normalsize{ \htmlClass{explanationCircle explanationCircle1}{\textcircled {1}} } }}}\frac{ 2 : \color{orangered}{ 2 } }{ 4 : \color{orangered}{ 2 }} - \frac{1}{3} \xlongequal{ } \\[1 em] & \xlongequal{ }\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{3} \xlongequal{ } \\[1 em] & \xlongequal{ \color{blue}{ \text{\normalsize{ \htmlClass{explanationCircle explanationCircle2}{\textcircled {2}} } }}}\frac{1}{6}\end{aligned} $$
①
Divide both the top and bottom numbers by $ \color{orangered}{ 2 } $.
②

Subtract $ \dfrac{1}{3} $ from $ \dfrac{1}{2} $ to get $ \dfrac{ \color{purple}{ 1 } }{ 6 }$.

To subtract fractions they must have the same denominator.
We can create a common denominator by multiplying the first fraction by $ \color{blue}{ 3 }$ and the second by $\color{blue}{ 2 }$.

$$ \begin{aligned} \frac{1}{2} - \frac{1}{3} & = \frac{ 1 \cdot \color{blue}{ 3 }}{ 2 \cdot \color{blue}{ 3 }} - \frac{ 1 \cdot \color{blue}{ 2 }}{ 3 \cdot \color{blue}{ 2 }} = \\[1ex] &=\frac{ \color{purple}{ 3 } }{ 6 } - \frac{ \color{purple}{ 2 } }{ 6 }=\frac{ \color{purple}{ 1 } }{ 6 } \end{aligned} $$
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