How would you multiply 11/15 and 12/17?

'horizontal multiplication' is required when multiplying fractions.

So the sum is essentially this: 11x12 / 15x17

11x12: mutliply 12 by 10 (so add a zero at the end); add 12 x 1(so 12) to that number; the answer is 132

15x17: if you are familiar with square numbers you'll know 15 x 15 is 225; 15 x 2 is 30; add these two; the answer is 255

answer = 132/255

If the question asks for simplification:

start with the smallest number, so 132.

Ask: can this be divided by 2? yes.

Then: can 255 be divided by 2? no (it ends in 5)

move through consecutive numbers

answer = 44/85

both can be divided by 3

Multiply the numerators for both fractions divided by the product of the two denominations for the final answer.

To multiply two fractions, you multiply the numerators (the top numbers of the fraction) with each other to get the answer's numerator. Then you multiply the denominators (the bottom numbers of the fraction) with each other to get the answer's denominator. Once you have the numerator and denominator for your answer, you should always see if you can simplify.

So for 11/15 multiplied by 12/17 it would be....

Step 1 - multiply the numerators

11 times 12 would be 132, so 132 is the numerator for the answer

Step 2 - multiply the denominators

15 times 17 would be 255, so 255 is the denominator for the answer

Step 3 - can you simplify the answer

As 132 is the numerator and 255 is the denominator, our answer as a fraction would be 132/255. We can simplify this down to 44/85 by dividing both the numerator and denominator by 3. So our final answer is 44/85