Subtracting a Fraction from a Whole Number

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Say we want to subtract:

eq001

The first thing we do is change 5 to a fraction. It becomes the fraction 5/1. Now we subtract fractions like any other. We multiply:

eq002

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

Eq003

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