Answer:
6 7/12
Explanation:
"12 1/4 - 5 2/3" is an expression. It is not said to equal anything. The "=" sign makes it an equation. But we can evalute an expression by simplyfying it. Let's do the subtraction. We first need to convert one of the fractions so that it has the same denominator as the other.
12 1/4 - 5 2/3 can be written as (12 - 5)+(1/4 - 2/3)
(12 - 5)+(1/4 - 2/3)
(7)+(1/4 - 2/3) Let's convert both fractions to have denominators of 12 [since 4*3 = 12]
7 + 1/4 - 2/3
7 + (1/4)*(3/3) - (2/3)*(4/4) [Multiply the tqo fractions by (3/3) and (4/4), repectively. This is OK since both are the equivalent of multiply by 1. But it converts the denominators so that we can now add or subtract.
7 + (3/12) - (8/12)
7 - (5/12)
or 6 7/12