What is 12/1 + 2/4?

Here's how you add

Step 1

Our denominators (bottom numbers) don't match, so we can't add yet.

4 goes into 1 evenly, so we only need to multiply one term to get a common denominator.

Multiply 12 by 4, and get 48, then we multiply 1 by 4 and get 4.

We now have a new problem, that looks like this:

Step 2

Since our denominators match, we can add the numerators.

48 + 2 = 50

Answer:

Step 3

Now, do we need to simplify this fraction?

First, we attempt to divide it by 2...

Are both the numerator and the denominator evenly divisible by 2? Yes! So we reduce it:

Now, try the same number again.

Nope. Try the next prime number, 3...

No good. 3 is larger than 2. So we're done reducing.

Congratulations! Here's your final answer to 12/1 + 2/4