Question

Find two fractions with the difference of 1/5 but with neither denominator equal to 5? I know the answer from Google but how is it solved?

Answer 1

Suppose we try to write out this problem symbolically:

a c 1
-- - --- = --- , b not equal to 5, d not equal to 5
b d 5

Unfortunately, this equation contains 4 unknowns (too many)


We could do a bit of guesswork here:

a c 1
-- - --- = --- , b not equal to 5, d not equal to 5
b d 5

8 6 2
--- - ----- = -----
10 10 10

This is true, but not all that wonderful, because all 3 fractions could be reduced and would then have denominator 5.