Up to now, we have said:
top x top
over
bottom x bottom
Our numerator and denominator here
are both in the 6x table
so we can divide by 6.
And that gives us...
When we can't reduce any more, we're done.
that 6/30 can be reduced.
And how about when the numbers are bigger than this example?
Would it seem more difficult to you?
"How is that even possible?" you ask.
And I'm all about making math easy!
Let's look at that first example again.
We have a numerator and a denominator
that are the same.
If we divide THIS top
and THIS bottom
by 3, they each change to 1.
This is also called...
We just 'cancelled' the need to multiply by 3!
GREAT!
2 and 10 are both even numbers.
We can reduced these as well.
Divide by 2
Here we get 1
And in 10, there's 5 twos
NICE!
Top x top...
over...
bottom x bottom
Quick AND easy!
If you like that technique
feel free to click that button!
...with a bit more thinking needed!
Yeah! If we go straight to multiplication, it certainly is!
But we can work smarter instead.
Look for...
We have 9 here, and 27 here.
27 is IN the 9x table.
Divide by 9
We get 1 here,
and in 27 there's 3 nines.
Here we've got 4 and 32.
That's handy!
32 is IN the 4x table.
That gives us...
In 32 there's 8 fours.
Now that looks SO much better, doesn't it?
We've got 3/8. Fantastic!!
We look for a multiples link
between a numerator and a denominator
We reduce as far as we can
Then we multiply out.
(as you can see from THIS problem!!)
Imagine multiplying that one out!
And then having to reduce it at the end!
No thanks! I'll take the smart path every time!
to reduce the fractions you have to multiply.
Here, 12 is in the 3x table.
I can reduce this fraction!!
First we reduce as much as we can...
Then we do the multiplication.
If you can still reduce at the end... do it!