tukdi:
Winsomelady I can vividly remember what u did to NwaAmaikpe!

winsomelady:


You are really very funny . By the way, how is my dear Uncle NwaAmaikpe. Give my love to him when you 'see' him.

godfromGod:
Actually I don't know mathematics at all and one little girl in our neighborhood has brought me this question for her to solve, please don't let me down


SUBTRACT THE FOLLOWING

1/12 - 2/9 = ?

dejt4u:
good of you OP. please bring it on

winsomelady:


You are really very funny . By the way, how is my dear Uncle NwaAmaikpe. Give my love to him when you 'see' him.

thankyouJesus:
Time to improve on my Mathematics skills, great job

IamOlusa:

I'm Macduffrx.

winsomelady:

Hey Macduffrx, long time no see. And how was your AAUA post UTME. And by the way, why did you deactivate your account. You mutated to Nobody and now you metamorphosed to IamOlusa. Good to hear from you anyway. Care to contribute? See ya later and all the best

winsomelady:

Thanks for the kind comments. Hope it helps. If it does, then my efforts are not in vain

winsomelady:
Let’s take a peep at this question. It is from WASSCE, November 2010, Question 20.
Simplify 2/3 + ¾ + 7/8 – 11/12
It is like adding apple, orange, guava together. It doesn’t make much sense. The strategy is to ‘convert’ or bring them to the same level or base. It is just wrong to add or subtract the numerators and denominators as: 2 + 3 + 7 – 11 = 1 and then 3 + 4 + 8 – 12 = 3 and expect the answer to be 1/3. This is totally wrong.
1. Find the LCM of the denominators (3,4,8, 12). Remember I said LCM stands for Lowest Common Multiple and it is simply the smallest number that those numbers (3,4,8, 12) will divide without remainder. That number is 24, so 24 is our LCM.

2. We will use each of the denominators to divide the LCM and the result will be used to multiply the numerator. This has the effect of ‘magically converting our apple, orange, and guava’ to the same fruit
2/3 + ¾ + 7/8 – 11/12
16 + 18 + 21 - 22
______________________ (adding 16, 18 and 21 and subtracting 22 from the result)
24
33/24 (We can simplify further)
1 9/24 (This is not 19, but 1 whole number, 9 divided by 24

winsomelady:
Let’s have a look at that bloke called fraction. Remember I wrote 2/1. All integers can be regarded as fraction since 2/1 = 2 and it is a fraction. Addition and subtraction is not as simple or is it as straight forward as it is in ordinary integers mentioned above. Here is a thread which I replied to



To solve this simple Maths problem, let us use an analogy. Using this analogy makes things look more 'reasonable'. Suppose you have an uncle in USA and he gives you $5 and another uncle in UK gives you £12. You want to buy groundnut. The girl that sells groundnut does not care much about your Pounds Strerling or Dollar. What do you do. You need to convert the two currencies to Naira. This is exactly what we are doing. The two 'currencies' above 1/12 and 2/9 are not 'compatible' and we need to make them so. We use a method called LCM. We make the two to be on the same 'scale'
It will be wrong to subtract 2 from 1 and subtract 9 from 12 since they are not on the same scale

Here are the steps:
1. Find the LCM. This makes them compatible. They are now on the same scale. Without finding the LCM, it will be similar to comparing apple to orange

2. Continue with the straight Maths. Here we go

LCM stands for Lowest Common Multiple. In this case, what smallest number that both 9 and 12 will divide without remainder. That number is 26, and that is our LCM


1/12 - 2/9

4 - 8
________ (The LCM is 36
36
Now, 4-8 = -5 (Using the logic of subtraction above
= -5
_____
36

jhybosky:

hi,how did u get d 16,18,21 and 22
explain further

winsomelady:


I hope you know how we arrived at the LCM (Lowest Common Multiple). For each case, you use the denominator to divide the LCM, and then use the result to multiply the numerator. Let’s have an example:
The dominators are 3, 4, 8 and 12. For the first case, use the denominator (3) to divide the LCM (24). What is the result?. Good, you got it. It is 8. Now use the 8 to multiply the numerator, and you get 16. Isn’t that simple?
Now dearie, let's do the second one together. How do we do it. Good of you that you know we will use the denominator, in this case 4, use it to divide the LCM. And what is our LCM. Wow! Fantastic. You got it. It is 24. What is the result of dividing 24 by 4. You got it. It is 6. Now use that result ( to multiply the numerator, and here we get our result. Easy, isn’t it. You know I told you Maths is damn easy

winsomelady:
Yes, that is really the goal, and everybody is welcomed on board. For those who think that Maths is too difficult, I am happy to let you know that you should perish the thought. Nothing is far from the truth. It is Our goal is to show and prove to you that Maths is not as difficult as people imagine.
The purpose is to demystify Maths, hence we are going to start from the basics. To those who are moderately OK, you may continue to check things up in a while until you are able to fit in. That is, once in a while, pay the thread a visit. To the gurus in the house, you are welcome to contribute. I am not claiming to have superior knowledge. Where I am wrong, don’t hesitate to point out my errors.

Where do we start from? From the basics: Numbers and Numeration. We will take a look at what form numbers can be. We will talk about Algebra, Trigonometry, Statistics etc.

Please the gurus, try and contribute your quota. After we have done a particular topic, we will take sample questions from JAMB, WAEC and other relevant external exams. We will also take a look, once in a while to great questions in Cowbell Maths. So this thread will be good for those who will be sitting for those exams. Once again, you are all welcome