How To Simplify Fractions Step By Step In Under 3 Minutes

Hi, I'm Brooke, and in this video we're going to be looking at simplifying fractions. Now, in order to do this, we need to find the highest common factor of both the numerator and denominator, and that's a number that can divide both the top and the bottom. So if you look at this example, we've got two eighths of the pizza. And I want to simplify this answer. I can see I've got two eighths here. And I'm going to find a common factor of both 2 and 8. So I can divide both the top and the bottom by 2. So that would be 1/4. So I can see here that 1/4 is equivalent to 2,8 in this example, 8 12. I'm going to go through the steps again. I'm going to find a highest common factor of both 8 and 12, which is 4, and I'm going to divide the numerator and the denominator by 4. 8 divided by 4 is 2, and 12 divided by 4 is 3. So here I can see that 8, 12 is equivalent to 2/3, and that's the answer in its simplest form. At this point, I'd be expecting pupils to apply their knowledge to a worded problem. So, in a class of 30, 18 are girls and 12 are boys. What fraction of the class are girls? And we need to simplify our answer. So I can see that I've got 18 out of 30 are girls, so 18/30 are girls. And I want to simplify my answer. So to do that, I'm going to find the highest common factor of 18 and 30, which is six, and I'm going to divide both the numerator and the denominator by 6. We need to remember that what we do to the numerator, we also do to the denominator. So 18 divided by 6 is 3, 3 and 30 divided by 6 is 5. So 3/5 of the class are girls, and that's how you simplify fractions.