Question

You are making a welding fixture and must cut down a length of copper tubing from 15 1/8 inches to 8 3/4 inches. If the leftover piece is long enough, you will use it in another fixture. How long will this leftover piece be? Simplify

Answer 1

6 3/4

Explanation:

15 1/8 - 8 3/4

First convert the mixed numbers into improper fractions.

(To do so, multiply the whole number by the denominator of the fraction and add the result to the numerator)

15 1/8 becomes 121/8

8 3/4 becomes 35/4

Then you need to make the numerators the same so multiply the numerator and denominator of 35/4 by 2 to get a common factor so you can subtract.

You now have 121/8 and 70/8.

Subtract 70 from 121 to get 51/8.

Simplify 51/8 to get 6 3/8 as your answer.

Hope this helps!