text: ok...well here is a detailed explaination\n\nfirst you need to conver 8 1/4 to an improper fraction,\nin general this means:\na b/c = (a*c +b)/c\n\nin your case \n8 1/4 = (8*4 +1)/4 = (32+1)/4 = 33/4\n\nthen you need to do the same for the second fraction\n5 1/2 = (5*2 +1)/2 = (10+1)/2 = 11/2\n\nnow you have the following\n33/4 -11/2\n\nwell to add this you need to have common denominators (bottoms of the fractions), to do this you need to find the smallest number that both 4 and 2 go into...in this case both of these numbers go into 4...(4*1=4 and 2*2=4)\n\nnow you need to get that second fraction to have a denominator of 4...to do this you notice that 2*2 is 4 so we need to multiply that second fraction by 2/2 (so the top and bottom of the fraction is multiplied by 2.  you would wonder why the top and bottom...the reason is because 2/2 =1  and we can multiply a number by  1 and it doesnt chage its value...we are just making 1 look funny so we can get the same denomintors\n\nnow ...\n\n11/2 * 2/2 = (11*2)/ (2*2) = 22/4 ( we recall we multiply the two top numbers and the two bottom numbers respectively)\n\nnow do your subtraction now that we have common denomintaors\n\n33/4-22/4 = (33-22)/4 (here we only subtract the numerator (top))\n\nso 11/4 is our answer\n\ni hope this helps....\nmatttlocke