How do you solve 3/4/8 + 1/3/4

Question

I don't remember how to do this kind of problem. I need the steps.

Answer 1

What is the actual question? Does 3/4/8 mean 3/4 divided by 8? And 1/3/4, does this mean 1/3 divided by 4? Let's assume that the question is (3/4)/8+(1/3)/4. That's the same as 3/(4*8)+1/(3*4). In other words 3/32 + 1/12. We need to know the lowest common denominator (LCD) of 32 and 12. What factors do we have? We can see that 4 is a common factor, while 8 and 3 are not. So the LCD is 4*3*8, which is 96. To add the fractions, we ask how many times does 32 go into 96? It's 3 times, so we multiply the numerator of this fraction by 3 to give us 9. So the first fraction becomes 9/96. The second fraction similarly becomes 8/96, because 12 goes into the LCD 8 times. Now we have 9/96+8/96. We can look at the LCD as if we were adding 9 apples and 8 apples. We get 17 apples. But we've got 96ths, not apples, so convert the apples back to 96ths and we get 17/96 instead of 17 apples. The LCD is just a way of getting fractions on to a common basis so we can add or subtract them as easily as apples, or any other objects. Does that make sense to you?

Answer 2

Given 3/4/8 + 1/3/4   From given expression, two cases can be considered: A: 3/(4/8) + 1/(3/4), or   B: (3/4)/8 + (1/3)/4  The calculation for each of them is shown below:

A: 3/(4/8) + 1/(3/4) = 3x(8/4) + 1x(4/3) = (3x8)/4 + (1x4)/3 = 24/4 + 4/3 = 24x3/12 + 4x4/12*

= 72/12 + 16/12 = 88/12 = 2x2x2x11/2x2x3 = 22/3  (* the least common multiple of 4 and 3 is 12) 

B: (3/4)/8 + (1/3)/4 = (3/4)x(1/8) + (1/3)x(1/4) = 3/(4x8) + 1/(3x4) = (3x3)/(4x8x3) + (1x8)/(3x4x8)

=9/96 + 8/96** = 17/96  (** LCM of 3,4,8 is 96)

Terefore,the answer is: 22/3 or 17/96