Lucy saws a wooden rod into two pieces. The larger piece is 7 3/4 inches long. The original rod was 9 1/8 inches long. How many inches long is the resulting smaller piece?
The length of the smaller piece can be found by subtracting the length of the larger piece from the length of the original rod:
9 1/8 - 7 3/4 = 9/8 - 31/4 = (9/8) - (31/4) = (9/8) - (31/8) = (-22/8) = -11/4
The resulting smaller piece is -11/4 inches long.