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:
20,402 = 2 × 101 × 101 = 2 × 1012
20,402 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
69,984 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 25 × 37
69,984 is a composite number.
20,402/69,984 =
(20,402 ÷ 2) / (69,984 ÷ 2) =
10,201/34,992
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.
20,402/69,984 =
(2 × 1012)/(25 × 37) =
((2 × 1012) ÷ 2) / ((25 × 37) ÷ 2) =
1012/(24 × 37) =
10,201/34,992
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
10,201/34,992 =
10,201 ÷ 34,992 =
0.291523776863 ≈
0.29