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:
4,592 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 7 × 41 = 24 × 7 × 41
4,592 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
123,732 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 7 × 491 = 22 × 32 × 7 × 491
123,732 is a composite number.
4,592/123,732 =
(4,592 ÷ 28) / (123,732 ÷ 28) =
164/4,419
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.
4,592/123,732 =
(24 × 7 × 41)/(22 × 32 × 7 × 491) =
((24 × 7 × 41) ÷ (22 × 7)) / ((22 × 32 × 7 × 491) ÷ (22 × 7)) =
(22 × 41)/(32 × 491) =
164/4,419
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
164/4,419 =
164 ÷ 4,419 =
0.037112468884 ≈
0.04