Subtracting Fractions

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Say we want to subtract:

eq001

The denominator of the first fraction is 8. The denominator of the second fraction is 3. Because these 2 numbers are different, we need the lowest common denominator, which, in this case is 24 because 3 x 8 = 24. So we multiply:

eq002

and

Eq003

We can do this because 3/3 = 1 and 8/8 = 1 and we know that multiplying a number by 1 doesn't change the number. Now we subtract:

Eq004

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