Advanced options
Enter fractions like 3/4, whole numbers like 2, or mixed numbers like 1 1/2.
What The Fraction Calculator Works Out
- Result: the answer in its simplest form, found by dividing top and bottom by their greatest common divisor (8/12 reduces to 2/3). Improper fractions are also shown as mixed numbers: 7/4 is 1 3/4, and both forms are correct.
- Adding and subtracting: you need a common denominator. Multiply each numerator by the other fraction's denominator, add or subtract, and put the result over the product of the denominators, so 1/2 + 1/3 becomes 3/6 + 2/6 = 5/6.
- Multiplying and dividing: multiply straight across for multiplication; to divide, flip the second fraction and multiply (the reciprocal rule), so 1/2 divided by 1/3 is 1/2 x 3/1 = 3/2.
- As a decimal: the numerator divided by the denominator, to four decimal places by default with trailing zeros removed.
- Working: the unsimplified intermediate line before reducing, which is exactly the step most marking schemes want to see, so the calculator doubles as a homework checker. Whole numbers (2 is 2/1) and mixed numbers (1 1/2) are accepted.
- Third fraction (advanced): chain a second operation onto the result, for example 1/2 + 1/3 then x 3/4, with the working shown in brackets in the order it was done.
- Decimal places (advanced): choose 2, 4, 6 or 8 places for the decimal and percentage cards.
- As a percentage and reciprocal (advanced): the result multiplied by 100, and the fraction turned upside down, which is what you divide by to undo it.
- Round to the nearest (advanced): snaps the answer to the nearest half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second or sixty-fourth and shows the error, which is how imperial tape measures, drill bits and spanner sizes are read.
- Lowest common denominator (advanced): the smallest number all the denominators divide into, found from their least common multiple. It is the denominator you would use to add the fractions by hand.