Question

How do you simplify `-8/33div(-20/39)`?

Answer 1

`26/55`

Explanation:

For a division sign, you can flip the other side of the equation and multiply instead. You will get

`(-8/33) xx (-39/20)`

The negatives cancel out so let's not worry about that. If you look at the `8` and `20`, you can divide both by `2` and get in return a `4` from the `8` and `10` from the `20`.

Then for the `33` and `39`, if you divide both by `3`, you will get an `11` from the `33` and a `13` from the `39`.

But from there, you can take out another `2` from the `4` and `10` to get `2` and `5`.

Multiply the numerators together and the denominators together.

`(8 xx 39)/(33 xx 20) = (cancel8^2xxcancel39^13)/(cancel33^11xxcancel20^5) = (2 xx 13) / (5 xx 11)`