Question

Can someone please explain complex fractions in the easiest way possible? I don't understand it at all :/

Answer 1

I sometimes refer to complex fractions as "stacked" fractions, because they tend to have fractions stacked on top of each other, like this:

Simplify the following expression:
[4 + (1/x)] / [3 + (2/x^2)]

This fraction is formed of two fractional expressions, one on top of the other. There are two methods for simplifying complex fractions. The first method is fairly obvious: find common denominators for the complex numerator and complex denominator, convert the complex numerator and complex denominator to their respective common denominators, combine everything in the complex numerator and in the complex denominator into single fractions, and then, once you've got one fraction (in the complex numerator) divided by another fraction (in the complex denominator), you flip-n-multiply. (Remember that, when you are dividing by a fraction, you flip the fraction and turn the division into multiplication.)