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:
4,576 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 11 × 13 = 25 × 11 × 13
4,576 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
123,708 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 13 × 13 × 61 = 22 × 3 × 132 × 61
123,708 is a composite number.
4,576/123,708 =
(4,576 ÷ 52) / (123,708 ÷ 52) =
88/2,379
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.
4,576/123,708 =
(25 × 11 × 13)/(22 × 3 × 132 × 61) =
((25 × 11 × 13) ÷ (22 × 13)) / ((22 × 3 × 132 × 61) ÷ (22 × 13)) =
(23 × 11)/(3 × 13 × 61) =
88/2,379
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
88/2,379 =
88 ÷ 2,379 =
0.036990332072 ≈
0.04