fractions: adding negatives: -1/8 + (-4/8) = -5/8, but key says "5/8" (no neg)

[steveopolis]

fractions: adding negatives: -1/8 + (-4/8) = -5/8, but key says "5/8" (no neg)

Out of 12 questions, I got 11 right, so I know I'm on the right track. However, the following I keep getting wrong:

-1/8 + (-1/2)
Because it's addition, I'm first making a common denominator, so:
-1/8 + (-4/8) = -5/8

However, the answer key says it's 5/8 (no negative).

 

[Steven G]

Out of 12 questions, I got 11 right, so I know I'm on the right track. However, the following I keep getting wrong:

-1/8 + (-1/2)
Because it's addition, I'm first making a common denominator, so:
-1/8 + (-4/8) = -5/8

However, the answer key says it's 5/8 (no negative).

If you add two negative numbers you will certainly get a negative number. In this case the negative number is -5/8. So you got 12 correct out of 12. Good job!

 

[steveopolis]

Thank you, Jomo. I was fairly confident in it, and regularly the answer key is incorrect, so I thought this *might* be one of those times.

 

[Steven G]

Out of 12 questions, I got 11 right, so I know I'm on the right track. However, the following I keep getting wrong:

-1/8 + (-1/2)
Because it's addition, I'm first making a common denominator, so:
-1/8 + (-4/8) = -5/8

However, the answer key says it's 5/8 (no negative).

Actually you should know that -1/8 + 6/8 = 5/8 so it would not be possible that -1/8 + (-1/2) also equals 5/8. That is, there is ONLY one number to add to -1/8 to get 5/8 and that number is 6/8.