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:
5,632 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 11 = 29 × 11
5,632 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
29,988 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 7 × 7 × 17 = 22 × 32 × 72 × 17
29,988 is a composite number.
5,632/29,988 =
(5,632 ÷ 4) / (29,988 ÷ 4) =
1,408/7,497
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.
5,632/29,988 =
(29 × 11)/(22 × 32 × 72 × 17) =
((29 × 11) ÷ 22) / ((22 × 32 × 72 × 17) ÷ 22) =
(27 × 11)/(32 × 72 × 17) =
1,408/7,497
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
1,408/7,497 =
1,408 ÷ 7,497 =
0.187808456716 ≈
0.19