What is a fraction in which the greatest common factor of the numerator and the denominator is 1?

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What is this fraction:

A fraction in which the greatest common factor of the numerator and the denominator is 1?

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4 Answers

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A fraction in which the greatest common factor of the numerator and the denominator is 1 is known as a reduced, or simplified, fraction. $$\dfrac 68 \;\;\text{is not reduced (or not simplified) because} \;\dfrac 68 = \dfrac {\color{blue}{\bf 2}\cdot 3} {\color{blue}{\bf 2}\cdot 2\cdot 2}$$

$$\dfrac 34\;\;\text{ is a reduced, or simplified, fraction:}\;\dfrac {\color{blue}{\bf 1}\cdot 3}{\color{blue}{\bf 1}\cdot 2\cdot 2}$$

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Quite often I have also heard this called a fraction in its lowest terms.

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This just means that the fraction has been reduced. For instance $4/6$ is not such a fraction, because the top and the bottom have gcf = 2, but $2/3$ is such a fraction.

Another way of saying it is that numerator and denominator are coprime.

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In Common Core math book it is "Simplest Form."

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