Question

Which fraction expresses -30/54 in lowest terms?

Answer 1

-30/54 in simplest form:

First, we can start out by finding the greatest common factor (GCF) of the numerator (30) and the denominator (54). To do so, we will list the factors of each number, find the common ones and then the greatest.

Factors of 30: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 30
Factors of 54: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18, 27, 54

Look through both sets of factors. Which are the common factors? 1, 2, 3, and 6 are the common factors of 30 and 54. Now, we have the find the greatest common factor. Basically, which number has greater value out of 1, 2, 3, and 6? The GCF is 6.

Second, our last step is to divide the numerator (30) and denominator (54) by our recently found GCF which was 6. This will create a new fraction which is in simplest form.

$30 \div 6 = 5 \\ 54 \div 6 = 9$

Let's collect our new numerator and denominator and rewrite our brand new fraction in its simplest form. 
$-\frac{5}{9}$

Answer in fraction form:$\fbox {-5/9}$
Answer in decimal form: $\fbox {-0.5556}$