Lowest common denominator

So, let's say you have two snacks. One snack is a cookie cut into 4 pieces and the other snack is a brownie cut into 6 pieces.

Now you want to share these snacks with your friends but you want to make sure everyone gets the same amount.

The lowest common denominator is like finding a common size for both snacks that you can cut them into so that everyone gets the same size pieces.

In this case, the lowest common denominator for 4 and 6 is 12. So, you could cut the cookie into 12 pieces and the brownie into 12 pieces and everyone would get the same size snack!

That's kind of like when you need to add or subtract fractions. You need to find the lowest common denominator so the fractions can all have the same size pieces to make it easier to add or subtract.