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:
174,758 = 2 × 59 × 1,481
174,758 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
1,800,000 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 = 26 × 32 × 55
1,800,000 is a composite number.
174,758/1,800,000 =
(174,758 ÷ 2) / (1,800,000 ÷ 2) =
87,379/900,000
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.
174,758/1,800,000 =
(2 × 59 × 1,481)/(26 × 32 × 55) =
((2 × 59 × 1,481) ÷ 2) / ((26 × 32 × 55) ÷ 2) =
(59 × 1,481)/(25 × 32 × 55) =
87,379/900,000
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
87,379/900,000 =
87,379 ÷ 900,000 =
0.097087777778 ≈
0.1