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:
70,848 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 41 = 26 × 33 × 41
70,848 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
149,996 = 2 × 2 × 7 × 11 × 487 = 22 × 7 × 11 × 487
149,996 is a composite number.
70,848/149,996 =
(70,848 ÷ 4) / (149,996 ÷ 4) =
17,712/37,499
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.
70,848/149,996 =
(26 × 33 × 41)/(22 × 7 × 11 × 487) =
((26 × 33 × 41) ÷ 22) / ((22 × 7 × 11 × 487) ÷ 22) =
(24 × 33 × 41)/(7 × 11 × 487) =
17,712/37,499
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
17,712/37,499 =
17,712 ÷ 37,499 =
0.472332595536 ≈
0.47