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:
7,896 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 7 × 47 = 23 × 3 × 7 × 47
7,896 is a composite number.
Written with exponents:
7,900 = 2 × 2 × 5 × 5 × 79 = 22 × 52 × 79
7,900 is a composite number.
7,896/7,900 =
(7,896 ÷ 4) / (7,900 ÷ 4) =
1,974/1,975
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.
7,896/7,900 =
(23 × 3 × 7 × 47)/(22 × 52 × 79) =
((23 × 3 × 7 × 47) ÷ 22) / ((22 × 52 × 79) ÷ 22) =
(2 × 3 × 7 × 47)/(52 × 79) =
1,974/1,975
As a decimal number:
Simply divide the numerator by the denominator, without a remainder, as shown below:
1,974/1,975 =
1,974 ÷ 1,975 =
0.999493670886 ≈
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