Well to put it in numbers, he has 4 3/4 feet of rope. He wants to cut off 1 1/2.
First we need to get common fractions. The way we do this is: is there anyway to make a 2, a four? Yes! There is! (If there is not, you have to find the Least common multiple)
How do we make this two a four? we times it by 2! But we have to be nice, and multiply the whole fraction, just to be fair.
So, we now have 4 3/4 rope, and James wants to get rid of 1 2/4 rope.
For starters, lets go easy. He has 4 foot, he wants one gone. So he has 3 feet of rope left.
But we still have the fractions! He has 3/4 rope, and we want to get rip of 2/4! so we subtract the numerators, and are left with 1/4 (its important you remember to keep the denominator in this case!)
So if we combine that, James will be left with 3 1/4 feet of rope!
