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:
56 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 7 = 23 × 7
56 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
4,000,000,046 = 2 × 7 × 7 × 107 × 381,461 = 2 × 72 × 107 × 381,461
4,000,000,046 is a composite number.
56/4,000,000,046 =
(56 ÷ 14) / (4,000,000,046 ÷ 14) =
4/285,714,289
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.
56/4,000,000,046 =
(23 × 7)/(2 × 72 × 107 × 381,461) =
((23 × 7) ÷ (2 × 7)) / ((2 × 72 × 107 × 381,461) ÷ (2 × 7)) =
22/(7 × 107 × 381,461) =
4/285,714,289
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
4/285,714,289 =
4 ÷ 285,714,289 =
0.000000014 ≈
0