EdwinThe LCD is the product of the denominators : We ask ourselves: What factor does the denominator of the first fraction , which is , lack which the LCD contains? The answer is that it lacks the factor . Therefore we multiply the first fraction by which: (1) Does not change its value because equals 1 and multiplying by 1 does not change any value. (2) It will cause the denominator of the first fraction to be the LCD So becomes: Now we do the same with the second fraction. We ask ourselves: What factor does the denominator of the second fraction , which is , lack which the LCD contains? The answer is that it lacks the factor . Therefore we multiply the second fraction by which: (1) Does not change its value because equals 1 and multiplying by 1 does not change any value. (2) It will cause the denominator of the second fraction to be the LCD So becomes or Now the denominators are the same, i.e., both denominators are now equal to the LCD Multiply the tops out but do not multiply out the bottoms: Since the denominators are the same we indicate the subtraction of the numerators over the LCD: Remove the parentheses in the top but not in the bottom: Combine terms in the numerator: I am sure your teacher would accept that answer. But if you like you can factor -1 out of the numerator: and then eliminate the by putting a negative sign out in front of the fraction: