Solving Equations with Fractions

Do you start to get nervous when you see fractions? Do you have to stop and review all the rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions?

If so, you are just like almost every other math student out there! But... I am going to make your life so much easier when it comes to solving equations with fractions!

Our first step when solving these equations is to get rid of the fractions because they are not easy to work with!

Let's look at an example:

That makes sense, right? We don't want to solve from here and end up having to subtract 9/4 from 9.

We also don't want to multiply by the reciprocal yet, because we have so many terms, that again it will create more fractions within the problem.

So... what do we do? We are going to get rid of just the denominator in the fraction, so we will be left with the numerator, or just an integer!

We need to discuss the word term.

In Algebra, each term within an equation is separated by a plus (+) sign, minus (-) sign or an equals sign (=). Variable or quantities that are multiplied or divided are considered the same term.

For example:

That last example is the most important to remember. If a quantity is in parenthesis, it it considered one term!

Let's look at a few examples of how to solve these crazy looking problems!

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Are you ready to practice a few? If you get stuck, go back and look at the examples!

Practice Problems

Answer Key

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