Solve the Fraction Subtraction: 1/3 minus 1/5

Question

Solve the following exercise:

1315=? \frac{1}{3}-\frac{1}{5}=\text{?}

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Solve
00:04 Multiply by the second denominator to find the common denominator
00:07 Make sure to multiply both numerator and denominator
00:19 Calculate the products
00:24 Subtract with the common denominator
00:33 Calculate the numerator
00:37 And this is the solution to the question

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve the problem 1315 \frac{1}{3} - \frac{1}{5} , we follow these steps:

First, we need to find a common denominator for the fractions 13\frac{1}{3} and 15\frac{1}{5}. The denominators are 3 and 5, and their least common multiple (LCM) is 15.

We will convert each fraction to an equivalent fraction with the denominator 15:

  • To convert 13\frac{1}{3} to a fraction with denominator 15, multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 5: 13=1×53×5=515 \frac{1}{3} = \frac{1 \times 5}{3 \times 5} = \frac{5}{15}
  • To convert 15\frac{1}{5} to a fraction with denominator 15, multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 3: 15=1×35×3=315 \frac{1}{5} = \frac{1 \times 3}{5 \times 3} = \frac{3}{15}

Now that both fractions have the same denominator, we can subtract the numerators:

515315=5315=215 \frac{5}{15} - \frac{3}{15} = \frac{5 - 3}{15} = \frac{2}{15}

Therefore, the solution to the problem is 215\frac{2}{15}.

Answer

215 \frac{2}{15}