Question

Express the fraction in simplest form.

Answer 1

4/16 is reduced to 1/4 by dividing the numerator and denominator by 4. 4/4 is 1 and 16/4 is 4, so the answer is C. 1/4.

Answer 2

4/16 in simplest form:

First, we need to find the greatest common factor (GCF) of 4 and 16. Why? We have to find the number that we are going to be dividing the numerator and denominator by to get the simplest form of the fraction. Let's list the factors for 4 and 16:

Factors of 4: 1, 2, 4
Factors of 16: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16

Out of the two sets of factors, which ones are the common ones? The common factors between the two are 1, 2, and 4. Since we are looking for the GREATEST common factor, we have to look at the highest number out of 1, 2, and 4. The GCF is 4, since 4 is higher than 1 and 2.

Second, we now have a number that we are going to divide the numerator and denominator by, which is 4. The numerator is the top number of the fraction (4) and the denominator is the bottom number of the fraction (16).Let's divide now.

$4 \div 4 = 1 \\ 16 \div 4 = 4$

Third, we now have the simplified fraction. (1) is our new numerator, and (4) is our new denominator. This makes the new simplified fraction 1/4. So, your answer is C.

Answer in fraction form: $\fbox {1/4}$
Answer in decimal form: $\fbox {0.25}$