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Reduce to simplest form
-3/2 - 3/8

User Sonulohani
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1 Answer

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Answer:

To add or subtract fractions, they must have a common denominator. In this case, the denominators of the fractions are 2 and 8, which are not the same. To find the least common multiple of 2 and 8, we can list the multiples of each number and find the smallest one that is common to both:

2: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, ...

8: 8, 16, 24, 32, ...

The least common multiple of 2 and 8 is 8. Therefore, to add or subtract the fractions, we must convert them to have a denominator of 8.

-3/2 = -12/8 and 3/8 = 3/8

So, -3/2 - 3/8 = -12/8 - 3/8

Now we can subtract the fractions directly:

-12/8 - 3/8 = -12 - 3 / 8

= -15/8

Therefore, the simplified form of -3/2 - 3/8 is -15/8

User Kit Roed
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