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:
49,995,003 = 3 × 16,665,001
49,995,003 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
299,970,000 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 11 × 101 = 24 × 33 × 54 × 11 × 101
299,970,000 is a composite number.
49,995,003/299,970,000 =
(49,995,003 ÷ 3) / (299,970,000 ÷ 3) =
16,665,001/99,990,000
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.
49,995,003/299,970,000 =
(3 × 16,665,001)/(24 × 33 × 54 × 11 × 101) =
((3 × 16,665,001) ÷ 3) / ((24 × 33 × 54 × 11 × 101) ÷ 3) =
16,665,001/(24 × 32 × 54 × 11 × 101) =
16,665,001/99,990,000
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
16,665,001/99,990,000 =
16,665,001 ÷ 99,990,000 =
0.166666676668 ≈
0.17