Content

• Steps
• What you need

Calculating with integers and subtracting fractions is not as difficult as you might think. There are two main methods to do this: either convert the whole number to a fraction, or subtract 1 from the whole number and convert 1 to a fraction with the same denominator as the fraction you're subtracting. Once you have two fractions with the same sample, you can begin to subtract. Both ways will help you to subtract whole numbers from fractions quickly and easily.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Subtract the integer from the fraction

1. 

   Convert the whole number to a fraction. Add 1 as the denominator of the integer.
   • For example:

2. 

   
   
   Denominator convergence. The denominator of the original fraction is also the largest common denominator of the two fractions. Multiply by the numerator and denominator of the "fractional integer" to converge the two-fraction denominator.

3. 

   
   
   Subtract the numerator together. Now that the two fractions have the same denominator, you can do as usual subtraction:
   • =

4. 

   
   
   Convert results to mixed numbers (optional). If your answer is an untrue fraction, you can rewrite it as a mixed number:
   • Example: Write as mixed numbers.
   • How much is 5 multiplied by 36? 5 x 7 = 35, so the integer part would be 7.
   • What about the rest? The integer part is equivalent, so - =
   • Combining integers and fractions, we get: =
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Method 2 of 2: Another method

1. 

   Use this for large integers. As you can see, in the method above, we convert the whole number to a fraction, then convert the answer back to a mixed number at the end of the lesson. This method truncates some steps so that the fraction only includes small numbers.

2. 

   Convert unreal fractions to mixed numbers. Skip this step if your fraction is an actual fraction. (The real fraction has a larger numerator than the denominator.)
   • For example:

3. 

   Split the whole number into 1 and another whole number. For example, rewrite 5 as 4 + 1, or 22 as 21 + 1.

4. 

   Convert 1 to a fraction. In this step, we use the above method to solve the rest of the problem in the "1 - (fraction)" direction. Other integers will remain the same until the end of the post.

5. 

   Perform multiplication to converge the denominator. As mentioned, we multiply the numerator and denominator of the new fraction by the denominator of the original fraction to converge the denominator.

6. 

   Add two fractions. Subtract the numerator of the fraction part of the expression.
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What you need

• Pencil
• Paper