How do you simplify $15 / 13 + -11.75 /13$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2017-07-07T12:00:51

See a solution process below:

First, rewrite the expression. The rule is: minus (-) a plus (+) is a minus (-):

$15/13 + - 11.75/13 => 15/13 - 11.75/13$

Because both fractions have common denominators we can subtract the numerators over the common denominators:

$(15 - 11.75)/13 => 3.25/13$

If necessary we can multiply by the appropriate form of $1$ to eliminate the decimal in the numerator:

$4/4 xx 3.25/13 = > (4 xx 3.25)/(4 xx 13) = 13/52$

We can now reduce the fraction as:

$13/52 = (13 xx 1)/(13 xx 4) = (color(red)(cancel(color(black)(13))) xx 1)/(color(red)(cancel(color(black)(13))) xx 4) = 1/4$

How do you simplify 15 / 13 + -11.75 /1315 / 13 + -11.75 /13?