You can cross-reduce just as easily as you can reduce one of the fractions
in the problem. Here's an example:
3 2 --- * --- = 8 9 Since the 3 and the 9 are both divisible by 3, we can rewrite the problem like this: 1 2 --- * --- = 8 3 Since the 2 and the 8 are both divisible by 2, we can rewrite the problem like this: 1 1 --- * --- = 4 3 And, obviously the answer is 1/12 If we had simply multiplied 3/8 and 2/9 without cross-reducing we would have gotten 6/72. As you might guess, 6/72 can be reduced to 1/12.
10 14 ---- * ---- = 21 35 Since 10 and 35 are both divisible by 5, we can rewrite the problem like this: 2 14 ---- * ---- = 21 7 Since 14 and 21 are both divisible by 7, we can rewrite the problem like this: 2 2 --- * --- = 3 7 Multiplying 2/3 and 2/7 we get 4/21. If we had multiplied 10/21 and 14/35 without reducing we would have gotten 140/735 which reduces to 4/21 since both 140 and 735 are divisible by 35.
Now you get to try a few for yourself.