fred cut a 9 3/4 inch square of construction paper for an art project. He cut a square from the edge of the big rectangle whose sides measured 3 1/4 inches.

3 2/4

Step-by-step explanation:

the big piece is 9 3/4 inches square and the smaller piece is 3 1/4

it is told that the smaller is cut out from the smaller.

For this problem you subtract 9 3/4 bye 3 1/4

since they already have the common denominator then you should just subtract them

9 3/4 - 3 1/4 = 3 2/4