What is 1/2 - 4/8?

Here's how to subtract 4/8 from 1/2:

Step 1

We can't subtract two fractions with different denominators. So you need to get a common denominator. To do this, you'll multiply the denominators times each other... but the numerators have to change, too. They get multiplied by the other term's denominator.

So we multiply 1 by 8, and get 8.

Then we multiply 4 by 2, and get 8.

Next we give both terms new denominators -- 2 × 8 = 16.

So now our fractions look like this:

Step 2

Since our denominators match, we can subtract the numerators.

8 − 8 = 0

So the answer is: