Question

Roman is drawing fraction bars to model the difference of Five-eighths and One-third. What is the smallest number of equally sized pieces each fraction bar can be broken into to find the difference?

3
5
8
24

Answer 1

You need a number divisible by both denominators 8 and 3 — the least common multiple is lcm(8,3) = 24.

So break each bar into 24 pieces: 5/8 = 15/24 and 1/3 = 8/24, difference = 7/24.

Answer: 24.