Find the distance between the numbers 11/8 and -3/10

Question

Fractions are my weakness pls help

Answer 1

distance means positive difference:

|(11/8) - (-3/10)|

if we make the denominators 40

= |(55/40) - (-12/40)| = (55 + 12) / 40

= 67/40

or

= 1 + 27/40

or

= 1.675

Answer 2

No need to be afraid of fractions----saying 3/4 is the same as saying "4 quarters". This is directly analogous to problem where we say "3 apples" or "10 bananas".

We know that the math of combining things requires that they be the same. You can't add apples + oranges, nor can you add "thirds" (1/4) and "quarters" (1/4)

You CAN however combine things when you know the equivalence. Suppose you want to add 3/4 to 3/8

(read it as three quarters and three eigths). We know that 1/4 is the same as 2/8, so we can modify the problem to:

6/8 + 3/8

Add to get 9/8, which is the same as 1 + 1/8 (written as 1 1/8)

The answer to your problem?

"distance" between 2 numbers is measured on the number line. Since you don't state a direction, we'll assume 11/8 - (-3/10) = 11/8 + 3/10

To add these, we need to make the denominators the same. We do this with what is called the "least common multiple". In this case, is is 40. So, we modify each value to be some number of "fortieths".

So 11/8 = 55/40

and

3/10 = 12/40

Add them to get 67/40