What is 1/3 - 3/9?

Here's how to subtract 3/9 from 1/3:

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 9, and get 9.

Then we multiply 3 by 3, and get 9.

Next we give both terms new denominators -- 3 × 9 = 27.

So now our fractions look like this:

Step 2

Since our denominators match, we can subtract the numerators.

9 − 9 = 0

So the answer is: