Multiply & Divide Rational Numbers

Answer 1

To multiply rational numbers, you multiply their numerators together and their denominators together.

For example, to multiply 2/3 and 4/5, you would multiply 2 x 4 to get 8 as the numerator and multiply 3 x 5 to get 15 as the denominator. So the product is 8/15.

To divide rational numbers, you multiply the first rational number by the reciprocal of the second rational number. The reciprocal is found by flipping the numerator and denominator.

For example, to divide 2/3 by 4/5, you would multiply 2/3 by 5/4 (the reciprocal of 4/5). This becomes (2/3) x (5/4) which is equal to (2 x 5) / (3 x 4) = 10/12. You can simplify this further by dividing both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor, which in this case is 2. So the simplified answer is 5/6.