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:
39 = 3 × 13
39 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
500,000,072 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 11 × 11 × 13 × 39,733 = 23 × 112 × 13 × 39,733
500,000,072 is a composite number.
39/500,000,072 =
(39 ÷ 13) / (500,000,072 ÷ 13) =
3/38,461,544
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.
39/500,000,072 =
(3 × 13)/(23 × 112 × 13 × 39,733) =
((3 × 13) ÷ 13) / ((23 × 112 × 13 × 39,733) ÷ 13) =
3/(23 × 112 × 39,733) =
3/38,461,544
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
3/38,461,544 =
3 ÷ 38,461,544 =
0.000000078 ≈
0