Arithmetic Grade Five

Lesson Eighty-six: Reducing Fractions

Here's another example of reducing a fraction. 

  Let's say we want to reduce:

        12
       ----
        15
To reduce we must:
  1. Find the Greatest Common Factor of the numerator and the demoninator.
  2. Divide both the numerator and the demoninator by the GCF.
Here's an example:

   Fraction:  12/15.
   Factors:
     12: {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12}.
     15: {1, 3, 5, 15}.
   GCF:  5.
   Divide the numerator and the denominator:
      12/3 = 4.
      15/3 = 5.
   Answer:  4/5.
Now you get to try a few.

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