The denominator tells you, in effect, what kind of fraction you have, whether it is halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, and so forth. You can add a group of thirds to another group of thirds and then find out how many thirds you have in total, but if you try to add thirds to quarters, what do you get? Not thirds, and not quarters, but some mix of the two. What is the sum of 2 apples and 3 Oranges? Five fruit. This doesn't work for numbers, however. The sum of 1/3 and 1/4 is two fractions, but that doesn't tell you anything, you want a specific number. You can get that by converting them both to twelfths. Then you have 4/12 and 3/12 which adds up to 7/12, an actual number.
Chat with our AI personalities
Not always but they need to have the same denominators when adding or subtracting them.
If the denominators are not the same, then you have to use equivalent fractions which do have a common denominator . To do this, you need to find the least common multiple (LCM) of the two denominators.
Yes. When multiplying and dividing fractions your denominators do not have to be the same. The denominators only haveto be the same if you are subtracting or adding them.
you must make the denominators the same first in order to add them once they are added, the denominators stay the same and the top combines
The denominators must be the same, the numerators can be different.