Can 18 over 72 be simplified?

Answer 1

To simplify a fraction, you must ask yourself:

"Is there any number that I can divide both the numerator (top) and the denominator (bottom) and still get an integer?"

And to do this, you can divide the top and bottom by the Greatest Common Factor (GCF).

So now, we ask ourselves, what is GCF(18,72)?

18 = 2 x 9 = 2 x 3 x 3

72 = 2 x 36 = 2 x 3 x 12 = 2 x 3 x 3 x 4 = 2 x 3 x 3 x 2 x 2

We see that 2x3x3 appears in both of the factor trees, so the GCF is 2x3x3=18

So, we will divide both the top and bottom by 18. Since you are dividing the top and bottom by 18, this is really 18/18, which is 1, and dividing by 1 does not change the value of the fraction.

18 / 18 = 1

72 / 18 = 4

Expressed as a proper fraction in its simplest form, by dividing the numerator and denominator by 18, 18/72 is equal to 1/4or one quarter.