Subtracting Mixed Numbers

We will look at two methods that can be used to subtract mixed numbers.

Method 1

We can convert the mixed numbers to improper fractions and then subtract them as fractions.

Example:

Calculate:

Solution:

The following video gives another example of subtracting mixed numbers using method 1.

Method 2

We can subtract the whole number part and the fractional part of the mixed numbers separately.

Example:

Calculate:

Solution:

The following video gives another example of subtracting mixed numbers using method 2.

Subtracting mixed numbers with borrowing

If the fractional part of the second mixed number is bigger than the fractional part of the fixed number then it would be necessary to "borrow" from the whole part before subtracting.

The following video shows how to subtract mixed numbers with borrowing.

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