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:
38 = 2 × 19
38 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
4,000,000,016 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 41 × 41 × 148,721 = 24 × 412 × 148,721
4,000,000,016 is a composite number.
38/4,000,000,016 =
(38 ÷ 2) / (4,000,000,016 ÷ 2) =
19/2,000,000,008
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.
38/4,000,000,016 =
(2 × 19)/(24 × 412 × 148,721) =
((2 × 19) ÷ 2) / ((24 × 412 × 148,721) ÷ 2) =
19/(23 × 412 × 148,721) =
19/2,000,000,008
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
19/2,000,000,008 =
19 ÷ 2,000,000,008 =
0.0000000095 ≈
0