What is 1/4 minus 12?

Hey Ninja, after all that great effort aren't you going to change it back to a mixed numeral?

 

anyway I am going to take a differerent route. 

 

$$\frac{1}{4}-12\\\\
=\frac{1}{4}-11\frac{3}{4}-\frac{1}{4}\\\\
=-11\frac{3}{4}\\\\$$

$$12 can be written as $\frac{12}{1}$, so now we have:\\
$\frac{1}{4} - \frac{12}{1}$\\
The problem here is that we don't have a common demoninator. Let's multiply $\frac{12}{1}$ by $\frac{4}{4}$ to get a common denominator. \\
We can do this because $\frac{4}{4}$ is really the same thing as 1, and if you multiply any number by 1, you will get that original number.\\
For example, \\
$5\times 1 = 5$\\
$99\times 1 = 99$, etc...\\\\
So, let's multiply $\frac{12}{1}$ by $\frac{4}{4}$\\
$\frac{1}{4} - (\frac{12}{1}\times\frac{4}{4})\\\\
\frac{1}{4} - (\frac{48}{4})\\\\
-\frac{47}{4}$\\\\
And there we go! our answer is $-\frac{47}{4}$$$

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