Can you cross cancel when adding or subtracting fractions?

Question

Or does it only work for division and multiplication

Answer 1

It only works for division and multiplication. To add and subtract, you have to get a common denominator. Then you can add or subtract the numerators and keep the denominator.

For example. 2/3 + 1/6. The common denominator would be 6 because 3 and 6 will both go into 6.

Multiply the top and the bottom of 2/3 by 2 to get that 6 denominator. 2/3 = 4/6

Now you can add. 4/6 + 1/6 = 5/6