Question

use prime factorization to reduce 48/72

Answer 1

\[{16 * 3}\over{8* 9}\]

\[{2^4 * 3} \over { 2^3 * 3^2}\]

\[2 \over 3\]

Answer 2

thats a little confussing

Answer 3

What I did:

Take the numerator and denominator individually and use prime factorization.

48:

48/2 = 24
24/2 = 12
12/2 = 6
6/2 = 3

We can not divide by 2, but we can divide by 3:

3/3 = 1


That's as far as we go. So I divided by 2 four times and once by 3:

Therefore:

48 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3

Now we take 72:

72 / 2 = 36
36 / 2 = 18
18 / 2 = 9
Nine is not divisible by 2, but it is by 3, so:

9 / 3 = 3
3 / 3 = 1

That's as far as we can go.

I divided by 2 three times and by 3 two times. Therefore

72 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 3

So, taking the bigger picture:

\[{48 \over 72} = { {2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3} \over {2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 3} }\]

Now three two's cancel out and one three cancels out and we get

\[2 \over 3\]
So, we divided by

Answer 4

Sorry, ignore the last sentence, don't know how that got there.

Answer 5

oh okay