235k views
5 votes
Perform the following operation, and then simplify, if possible. 3/9-3/7

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

To solve 3/9-3/7, find a common denominator (63), subtract the fractions to get -6/63, and simplify by dividing by the GCD (3) resulting in an answer of -2/21, which is a reasonable small negative fraction.

Step-by-step explanation:

To perform the operation 3/9 - 3/7, we first look for a common denominator. The numbers 9 and 7 have no common factors (other than 1), so the common denominator is simply 9 times 7, which is 63. We then rewrite each fraction with the common denominator:

(3/9) becomes (3×7)/(9×7) = 21/63

(3/7) becomes (3×9)/(7×9) = 27/63

Now we can subtract the two fractions:

21/63 - 27/63 = (21 - 27)/63 = -6/63

To simplify the result, we find the greatest common divisor (GCD) of 6 and 63, which is 3. We then divide both the numerator and the denominator by this GCD:

-6/63 ÷ 3/3 = -2/21

The simplified answer is -2/21. To check if this is reasonable, we note that since 3/9 is equal to 1/3 and 3/7 is slightly less than 1/2, the difference should be a small negative fraction, which confirms the reasonableness of our answer.

User Istrupin
by
8.4k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.