What is 12/1 + 3/6?

Let's add

Step 1

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

Since 1 is evenly divided by 6, we can multiply just one term to get a common denominator.

Multiply 12 by 6, and get 72, then we multiply 1 by 6 and get 6.

The problem now has new fractions to add:

Step 2

Since our denominators match, we can add the numerators.

72 + 3 = 75

The sum we get is

Step 3

The last step is to reduce the fraction if we can.

To find out, we try dividing it by 2...

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

Are both the numerator and the denominator evenly divisible by 3? Yes! So we reduce it:

Now, try the same number again.

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

Congratulations! Here's your final answer to 12/1 + 3/6