Adding of Fractions is a simple process. It involves the following steps as shown below: 1.

We need to make sure that the Denominators in the fractions that we are trying to add are same i.e they have a Common Denominator. 2. Add the Numerators in both the fractions. Place the sum of both the numerations over the same denominator 3. Reduce or simplify the fraction ( If needed )

The trick here is to understand how to make the Denominators same (Common Denominator) in both the fractions before adding. The following are the two options to do that. Option 1: Least Common Multiple Method Let us understand this through an example by doing the addition of the two fractions 1/5 + 1/8. The multiples of 5 are 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50 and so on. The multiples of 8 are 8,16,24,32,40,48 and so on. The Least common multiple between both the numbers is 40. To get to 40 for the first denominator 5 we have to multiply it by 8. But remember in order to keep the fraction same as before we need to multiply both numerator and denominator with the same number so we now multiply 1/5 both numerator and denominator by 8 so 8 X 1 / 8 X 5 = 8/40. Now we look at the second denominator. To get to 40 we need to multiply it by 5 so we do the same to the other fraction but with a different multiple 5 which results in 1 X 5 / 8 X 5 = 5 / 40. We now take the two fractions 8/40 and 5 / 40 and add both the numerators 8 + 5 and keeping the same common denominator giving us the answer as 13 / 40. Option 2: Common Denominator Method In this method to get to a common denominator in both fractions we multiply the numerator and denominator of one fraction by the denominator of the other fraction. We do this to both fractions that are to be added together. This will result in the both fractions have a common denominator. Then we add the numerators of the fractions as before and simplify the result if needed in the end. To understand this lets do and example. Lets add 3/2 + 4/5. The first step is to multiply each of the fractions by the denominator of the other. 3 X 5 / 2 X 5 = 15 / 10 4 X 2 / 5 X 2 = 8 / 10

We now take the two fractions 15/10 with 8/10 and add both numerators 15 + 8 and keeping the same common denominator giving us the answer 23/10.