To reduce a fraction to the lowest terms equivalent: divide the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor, GCF
To calculate the greatest common factor, GCF:
- 1. Factor the numerator and the denominator (into prime factors), build their prime factorizations.
- 2. Multiply all their common prime factors, taken by the lowest exponents.
1. Factor the numerator and the denominator:
To factor a number (into prime factors) - or, in other words, to break it down to prime factors - or, in other words, to build its prime factorization: find the prime numbers that multiply together to get that number.
The prime factorizations:
Written with exponents:
12,544 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 7 × 7 = 28 × 72
12,544 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
200,025 = 3 × 3 × 5 × 5 × 7 × 127 = 32 × 52 × 7 × 127
200,025 is a composite number.
12,544/200,025 =
(12,544 ÷ 7) / (200,025 ÷ 7) =
1,792/28,575
Yet another method to reduce the fraction
To reduce a fraction without calculating the GCF: factor its numerator and denominator, then all the common prime factors are easily identified and crossed out.
12,544/200,025 =
(28 × 72)/(32 × 52 × 7 × 127) =
((28 × 72) ÷ 7) / ((32 × 52 × 7 × 127) ÷ 7) =
(28 × 7)/(32 × 52 × 127) =
1,792/28,575
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
1,792/28,575 =
1,792 ÷ 28,575 =
0.06271216098 ≈
0.06