Simplify the operation
Reduce (simplify) the fractions to their lowest terms equivalents:
- To reduce a fraction to the lowest terms equivalent: divide both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor, GCF.
The fraction: - 1,039/959
- 1,039/959 is already reduced to the lowest terms.
The numerator and denominator have no common prime factors:
- 1,039 is a prime number.
- 959 = 7 × 137
- GCF (1,039; 959) = 1
The fraction: - 1,047/964
- 1,047/964 is already reduced to the lowest terms.
The numerator and denominator have no common prime factors:
- 1,047 = 3 × 349
- 964 = 22 × 241
- GCF (1,047; 964) = 1
Calculate the common denominator
The common denominator is nothing else than the least common multiple (LCM) of the denominators of the fractions.
To calculate the LCM, we need the prime factorization of the denominators:
959 = 7 × 137
964 = 22 × 241
Multiply all the unique prime factors: if there are repeating prime factors we only take them once, and only the ones having the highest exponent (the highest powers).
LCM (959, 964) = 22 × 7 × 137 × 241 = 924,476
Calculate the expanding number of each fraction:
Divide the LCM by the denominator of each fraction.
- 1,039/959 ⟶ 924,476 ÷ 959 = (22 × 7 × 137 × 241) ÷ (7 × 137) = 964
- 1,047/964 ⟶ 924,476 ÷ 964 = (22 × 7 × 137 × 241) ÷ (22 × 241) = 959
Make the denominators of the fractions the same:
- Expand each fraction: multiply both its numerator and denominator by its corresponding expanding number, calculated above.
- This way all the fractions will have the same denominator:
- 1,039/959 = - (964 × 1,039)/(964 × 959) = - 1,001,596/924,476
- 1,047/964 = - (959 × 1,047)/(959 × 964) = - 1,004,073/924,476