What is 3/4 minus 1/6?

• A. 5/12
• B. 9/12
• C. 7/12
• D. 2/3

Answer: (C)

When subtracting fractions with different denominators, you first need a common denominator. The least common multiple of 4 and 6 is 12, so rewrite both fractions with denominator 12: 3/4 becomes 9/12 (multiply top and bottom by 3) and 1/6 becomes 2/12 (multiply top and bottom by 2). Then subtract the numerators: 9/12 − 2/12 = 7/12. That’s already in simplest form since 7 and 12 share no common factors other than 1. The other numbers would come from not aligning to the common denominator or from arithmetic mistakes in the subtraction.