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:
71,428,572 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 109 × 109 × 167 = 22 × 32 × 1092 × 167
71,428,572 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
125,000,000 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5 = 26 × 59
125,000,000 is a composite number.
71,428,572/125,000,000 =
(71,428,572 ÷ 4) / (125,000,000 ÷ 4) =
17,857,143/31,250,000
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.
71,428,572/125,000,000 =
(22 × 32 × 1092 × 167)/(26 × 59) =
((22 × 32 × 1092 × 167) ÷ 22) / ((26 × 59) ÷ 22) =
(32 × 1092 × 167)/(24 × 59) =
17,857,143/31,250,000
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
17,857,143/31,250,000 =
17,857,143 ÷ 31,250,000 =
0.571428576 ≈
0.57