How do you simplify $1/2-(1/8+1/8)$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-11-23T13:23:15

$1/4$

First, add the terms within parenthesis:

$1/2 - (1/8 + 1/8) => 1/2 - 2/8$

Next, reduce the second term:

$1/2 - ((2/2) * (1/4)) => 1/2 - (1*(1/4)) => 1/2 - 1/4$

To get these two terms over a common denominator (in this case $4$ ) we need to multiple the first term by $(2/2)$ :

$1/2 - 1/4 => ((2/2) * (1/2)) - 1/4 = 2/4 - 1/4$

Now we can subtract the terms to obtain the final answer:

$2/4 - 1/4 => (2 - 1)/4 => 1/4$

How do you simplify 1/2-(1/8+1/8)1/2-(1/8+1/8)?