The 'Butterfly Method' for Fractions

Struggling with adding or subtracting fractions? There's a visually appealing way to conquer them! 🦋 Ready to see it?

Subject: mental-calculation • Classes: 6–12 • Difficulty: basic (6-8)

The Trick

The 'Butterfly Method' simplifies adding/subtracting fractions like $\frac{a}{b} \pm \frac{c}{d}$. Cross-multiply: $a \times d$ and $b \times c$. These become your new numerators. Add or subtract these new numerators based on the original operation. The new denominator is $b \times d$. So, the result is $\frac{(a \times d) \pm (b \times c)}{b \times d}$. It works because we are finding a common denominator by multiplying the denominators together.

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