87.8k views
20 votes
Please i don’t understand this i don’t understand the least common denominator and how can i write an equivalent fraction.please help me my exam is tomorrow

Please i don’t understand this i don’t understand the least common denominator and-example-1

2 Answers

5 votes

Answer:

Least common denominator is the lowest number in similarity that a fraction can share and be divided into

Explanation:

For example, in this example 1/5, and 1/2 the least common denominator would be 10 because when putting these fractions together you might want to find the total of what they equal. For example, think of this example as a pizza, to make one whole pizza in the first one would be 5 pieces but instead of all five pieces, all you have left is 1 piece of the five. so you only have 1/5. now just imagine you had another pizza the same size of the first one but instead of five pieces you it's only two pieces however, from this two piece pizza all you have left is 1/2. You want to find the in terms of what fraction would make them both equal each other in which you would eventually be able to find out how much pizza you would have left. The denominator is the lower number under the fraction where that is the one most needed for a fraction to change. The least common denominator is a number that goes into both fractions that in reverse can be divided by against each other. our denominators are 5 and 2. Numbers that are divisible are 10, 20, 40 and so on since 5x2=10, 2x5=10; 5x4=20, 2x10=20; 5x8=40, 2x20=40. The least common denominator would be the lowest number which in this case would be 10.

User Richard H Fung
by
4.3k points
8 votes
Basically you find the least possible denominator you can use to make both fractions have the same denominator. The LCD for 5 and 2 is ten because they’re multiplied together, so 1/5 would be 2/10 and 1/2 would be 5/10, if that makes sense. You multiply the numerator by whatever you multiply the denominator by. 2/3 could also be 4/6 or 8/12 or 200/300. The Lcd of 5/8 and 2/4 would be 8, since 5/8 can’t be simplified but 2/4 can be multiplied by 2 to get 4/8 to make the fractions easier to understand. Some fractions aren’t as easy to simplify like 5/19 and 3/26 would be 130/494, and 57/494 respectively. The LCD is just the two denominators multiplied together, as they don’t have any common factors except the numbers multiplied which is 494.
User Karan Champaneri
by
4.4k points