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:
384 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 = 27 × 3
384 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
1,000,134 = 2 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 18,521 = 2 × 33 × 18,521
1,000,134 is a composite number.
384/1,000,134 =
(384 ÷ 6) / (1,000,134 ÷ 6) =
64/166,689
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.
384/1,000,134 =
(27 × 3)/(2 × 33 × 18,521) =
((27 × 3) ÷ (2 × 3)) / ((2 × 33 × 18,521) ÷ (2 × 3)) =
26/(32 × 18,521) =
64/166,689
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
64/166,689 =
64 ÷ 166,689 =
0.000383948551 ≈
0