Question

Reduce the following to their lowest form:

$\text{(a)}\frac{7}{10}$
$\text{(b)}\frac{27}{72}$

Answer 1

(a) Here, numerator = 7 and denominator = 10.

Factors of 7 are 1,7.

Factors of 10 are 1,2,5,10.

Common factors of 7 and 10 is 1 only.

HCF of 7 and 10 is 1.

$\text{Hence,}\frac{7}{10}\text{is in the simplest form.}$

$\text{(b) In}\frac{27}{72},\text{numerator}=27,\text{denominator}=72.$

$\text{Now,}27=3\times 3\times 3\text{and}72=3\times 3\times 2\times 2\times 2$

$HCF=3\times 3=9$

$\frac{27}{72}=\frac{27÷9}{72÷9}=\frac{3}{8}$

$\text{Hence,}\frac{27}{72}\text{in its lowest term}=\frac{3}{8}.$