On a number line you can put zero in the middle, so that positive numbers are to the right of zero and negative numbers to the left. The distance from zero of the negative number is 4/5 and the distance from zero to the positive number is 8/11, so the distance between the numbers is the sum of the distances on either side of zero is 4/5+8/11. We can work this out by finding a common denominator of 5 and 11. They both go into 55. 5 goes into 55 11 times and we have 4 fifths so we need to multiply 11 by 4 to get 44/55. 11 goes into 55 5 times and we have 8 elevenths so we multiply 8 by 5 to get 40/55. Now we have both fractions with the same denominator. We add these together: 44+40 giving us 84/55. We can write this as 1 (because we can divide 55 into 84 just once) and 84-55=29 remainder, that's 29/55 so the answer can be written 1 29/55. This means that if we make a number line divided into 110 equal divisions with zero right in the middle, we count left from zero 44 divisions and right from zero 40 divisions to represent the two numbers. We have 84 divisions in between, which is 84/55. That's 55+29 or 1 whole plus 29/55.