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:
192 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 = 26 × 3
192 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
6,000,084 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 166,669 = 22 × 32 × 166,669
6,000,084 is a composite number.
192/6,000,084 =
(192 ÷ 12) / (6,000,084 ÷ 12) =
16/500,007
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.
192/6,000,084 =
(26 × 3)/(22 × 32 × 166,669) =
((26 × 3) ÷ (22 × 3)) / ((22 × 32 × 166,669) ÷ (22 × 3)) =
24/(3 × 166,669) =
16/500,007
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
16/500,007 =
16 ÷ 500,007 =
0.000031999552 ≈
0