Answer
$\frac{b}{12} + 1$
Work Step by Step
Use distributive property to get rid of the parentheses:
$\frac{1}{3}(b) + \frac{1}{3}(12) - \frac{1}{4}(b) - (\frac{1}{4})(12)$
Multiply out the terms:
$\frac{1}{3}b + 4 - \frac{1}{4}b - 3$
Group like terms together:
$(\frac{1}{3}b - \frac{1}{4}b) + (4 - 3)$
Add like terms:
$(\frac{b}{3} - \frac{b}{4}) + 1$
For subtracting fractions, we need to find the least common denominator of the two fractions.
The least common denominator (LCD) for both would be 12.
Make the fractions similar using their LCD of 12 to obtain:
$(\frac{4b}{12} - \frac{3b}{12}) + 1$
Now we can subtract the fractions:
$\frac{b}{12} + 1$
