When working with fractions, the greatest common factor (GCF) can be one of your best tools. GCF works by breaking down numbers into their factors, which are integers that when multiplied by another integer produce the original number. Fractions can often have different numerators and denominators but represent the same value. But by calculating the GCF of the involved numbers, you can reduce fractions to their simplest terms and make operations like multiplication and comparison between them easier.
Instructions
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1
Find the factors of the involved numbers. For an example, the number 20 has the factors 1, 2, 4, 5, 10 and 20, and the number 30 has the factors 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10 and 30.
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2
List the common factors of the numbers. In this example, the common factors of 20 and 30 are 1, 2, 5 and 10.
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3
Select the largest number from the list as the greatest common factor. In this example, the largest number in the list and greatest common factor of 20 and 30 is 10.