Reducing Fraction to Lowest Form (Part - 9) - Fractions and Decimals, Maths, Class 7 Video Lecture

hello friends this video on fractions
and decimals part 9 is brought to you by
exam feel calm no more fear from exam
now we will learn about another
important concept which is reducing to
fractions to lowest form that means
reducing fractions to lowest forms we
have learnt about equivalent fractions
right and equivalent fractions and these
lowest form of fractions they are kind
of connected so look at this examples
let's say you have 1 by 2 4 by 8 20 by
40 15 by 30 3 by 6 now these are all
examples of equivalent fractions because
each one of them represent the same
number now for certain fraction
fractions they can be reduced to a lower
form but for certain fractions B cannot
be further reduced now here in the out
of these examples which are shown only
one by two is the one which is at its
lowest form everything else can be
reduced to its lowest form so how do we
reduce the fraction to its lowest form
so let's let's have a look so let's look
at 4 by 8 so what we do with 4 by 8 now
this is possible only when there is a
common factor between these numerator
and the denominator except one so by now
you understand what is a common factor
right for example if you talk about 4
what are the factors of both 1 to 4 so
factors are basically divisors those
number which exactly divides 4 so 1 2 &
4 are the factors of whole what are the
factors of 8 1 2 4 8 these are the
factors of 8 so you see there are common
factors between 4 & 8 except 1 because 1
is a common factor between any two
numbers so between you take any two
numbers so one will always be a common
factor so besides one if it has more
common factors only then
that particular fraction can be reduced
to a lowest form so in this case we have
2 as a common factor we also have 4 as a
common factor so we find out the HCF
that is highest common factor which is
the highest common factor for right so
the highest common factor is 4 now what
do we do so what we do is we divide the
numerator and the denominator by 4 so we
divide the numerator by 4 we also divide
the denominator by 4 so 4 divided by 4
what is 4 divided by 4 yes it is 1 and
what is 8 divided by 4 that is 2 so 4 by
8 is reduced to 1 by 2 now do you think
that 1 by 2 can be reduced to any
further lowest form let us try to check
so 4 by 8 is done let us try to check if
1 by 2 can be reduced further to a
lowest form now what are the factors of
1 it is 1 and what are the factors of 2
1 & 2 so basically when you look at it
they have only one common factor and
that is 1 so other than 1 they do not
have any common factor therefore they
cannot be reduced further so this is in
its lowest form so 1 by 2 is in its
lowest form so let us pick up some other
example from here let's say 15 by 13 so
let's write the common factors of 15 so
it is 1 3 5 and 15 similarly let's write
the common factors of 30 it would be 1 2
5 6 15 and 30 now you have learned about
factors HCF and CM all these things and
class 6 so in case you have forgotten
please therefore the videos on hcf and
LCM of class 6 it is the chapter on
playing with numbers so here which is
the highest common factor so the highest
common factor here is 15 so what are we
going to do we are going to
the numerator and the denominator by 15
so 15 divided by 15 is 1 and 30 divided
by 15 is 2 so again this is also reduced
to its lowest form so this is how we
reduce fractions to its lowest form so
normally what happens is the variable
you have a fraction which is an
equivalent fraction of some of the
fraction so it can be reduced to that
lowest form of fraction for example here
one might do four by eight fifteen by
thirty these are all equivalent
fractions because they basically mean
the same thing they all actually refer
to one by two but we can reduce four by
eight two and by two we can reduce
fifteen by thirty to one by two
similarly we can reduce three by six
also to one by two try it out yourself
you can even reduce 20 by 40 to 1 by 2
so you can try these exercises yourself
so that when you get ahold of it so this
is how we reduce fractions to their
lowest forms thank you
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