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can 16/45 be redused?

 Sep 14, 2016
 #1
avatar+36919 
+5

It CANNOT be reduced further as a FRACTION, but it can be converted to a decimal  0 .355555555.....

 Sep 14, 2016
 #2
avatar+55 
0

There's a way to easily tell whether something can be reduced any further or not.

The way it works is starting from the point that any number can be written as a product of only prime numbers.

 

16 = 2^4 = 2*2*2*2

45 = 3^2 * 5 = 3*3*5

 

Now as you can see there are no common prime numbers with this specific pair of numbers you have provided which

indicates that you can truly not simplify this fraction.

 

Let's add a *2 to the second number and see what happens.

 

2*3*3*5 = 90

 

Now this number has one '2' as a common factor with the number 16 which means that you can simplify it by dividing both by two. This works with any number by the way. The way you figure out how to write a number in prime notation is to start from the smallest prime number (2) and see if you can divide your number by that. If so, how often? If not, whats the next higher prime number? Think you get the idea...

 

Hope i could help

 

Greetings

 

MayD

 Sep 14, 2016

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