What is 36 over 1000 in simplest form?

Answer 1

To get the simplest form, you simply have to keep dividing the numerator and denominator by common factors until you reach a point where they cannot be divided further. In other words, you can find out the prime factors of both the numerator and denominator and write them as a product of their prime factors.

In this case, 36/100. You need to know how prime factorization works, but in this case I've done it and left that part out:

Prime factors of 36: 2x2x3x3

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Prime factors of 100: 2x2x5x5

At this point, you cancel out the common prime factors present in both the numerator and the denominator. You cancel two of the 2's from top and bottom and you are left with 3x3 / 5x5. Which comes out to 9/25. Therefore, the simplest form of 36/100 is 9/25 (9 over 25).

If you don't want to show the work, as we did here, you simply keep dividing top and bottom with any number that is divisible into both (common factor of both). At times, it helps knowing the highest number that divides into both, such as dividing by 4 in this case would give you the answer right away.