On the stock market four companies had a price change of 5/8, -0.25 -1/8 and 1.5 is the -1/8 the smallest price change of the four companies? Explain why or why not. Place the price changes in order from least to greatest. Show all your work.

Given:

Price change of four companies .

To find:

Smallest price change of the four companies.

Solution:

We have price change of four companies as .

Here negative sign represents the decrease in stock market price.

Price change can either positive or negative. So, we need to find the absolute value of each price change.

Arrange these values in increasing order.

Now,

Price changes in ascending order is

Hence, -1/8 the smallest price change of the four companies.

example 2 – simplify: step 1: completely factor both the numerators and denominators of all fractions. step 2: change the division sign to a multiplication sign and flip (or reciprocate) the fraction after the division sign; essential you need to multiply by the reciprocal. step 3 : cancel or reduce the fractions.