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:
123,724 = 2 × 2 × 30,931 = 22 × 30,931
123,724 is a composite number.
4,576/123,724 =
(4,576 ÷ 4) / (123,724 ÷ 4) =
1,144/30,931
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.
4,576/123,724 =
(25 × 11 × 13)/(22 × 30,931) =
((25 × 11 × 13) ÷ 22) / ((22 × 30,931) ÷ 22) =
(23 × 11 × 13)/30,931 =
1,144/30,931
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
1,144/30,931 =
1,144 ÷ 30,931 =
0.036985548479 ≈
0.04