Adding and Subtracting Rational Expressions

Question

What are the trickiest steps to do when adding or subtracting rational expressions? How does your knowledge of rational numbers help you in adding and subtracting rational expressions?

Answer 1

1) factoring

2) finding the common denominator

3) making the fractions have the same common denominator

4) adding/subtracting the numerators

5) simplifying the numerator

6) factoring the numerator to see if anything else will cancel

7) stating the domain where denominator is not zero