LESSON 2: GRADE 6

ADDING FRACTIONS

To add fractions there are Three Simple Steps:

 Step 1: Make sure the bottom numbers (the denominators) are the same
 Step 2: Add the top numbers (the numerators), put that answer over the
denominator
 Step 3: Simplify the fraction (if possible)
Example:
1/4 + 1/ 4
Step 1. The bottom numbers (the denominators) are already the same. Go
straight to step 2.
1/4 + 1/4 = 1 +1/4 = 2/4
Step 2. Add the top numbers and put the answer over the same
denominator:
2/4 = 1/2
Step 3. Simplify the fraction:

 If the bottom numbers are different we need to make them the same
before we can continue, because we can't add them like that.
 Adding numbers and a Fraction

2 + 3/4 =
The first thing that we need to do in this case is to convert the 2 into a
fraction. As you already know, we can simply put a 1 in the denominator of
any number without changing its value:
2/1 + 3/4 =
When we have two fractions, we can start looking for the common
denominator. In this example, it’s quite simple because the least common
multiple of 1 and any number is that number. So:
LCM (1,4) = 4
Now, we only need to multiply 2 x 4 and we get:
2 = 8/4
…and now we put it into our addition problem:
8/4 + 3/4 = 11/4
 Adding Fractions with Co-Prime Denominators
Remember that two numbers are co-prime if their greatest common
divisor is 1. For example, in the problem:
2/3 + 1/4 =
The denominators are co-prime because:
GCD(3,4) = 1
These kinds of problems are simple to solve because the only thing
that we need to do to find the new numerators is to multiply each
numerator by the denominator of the other fraction, as shown below:

2X4=8

1X3=3

And we simply multiply the denominators together. So, we get:

2/3 = 8/12
And
1/4 = 3/12
And the only thing that’s left to do is to add the two fractions
together:

8/12 + 3/12 = 11/12

 Adding Fractions in General
For example:
3/4 + 4/6 =
We need to calculate the least common multiple of the denominators:
LCM(9,6) = 18
What do we have to do next? Let’s break it down. First, let’s look at
the fraction:
3/9
To find the numerator, we need to divide the LCM by the fraction’s
denominator:
18/2 = 9
We need to multiply the fraction’s numerator by 2. So:
2 x3=6
And we can see that the new numerator is 6.
For the denominator, we just need to use the GCM (18):
3/9 = 6/18
Now, we just do the same thing with the other fraction. To solve for
the numerator, we need to divide:
18/6 = 3
 And multiply by the numerator:
4 x 3 = 12

Then, we put in the GCM as the denominator, which gives us:

4/6 = 12/18

Now, all that’s left to do is to add the fractions together …

6/18 + 12/18 = 18/18

Then simply:
18/18 = 1/1

PRACTICE!

1. 4/8 + 6/8 =
2. 6/3 + 3/9 =

Answer!

1. 5/4
2. 7/3