GCSE Maths

Simplifying Fractions

Simplifying fractions is important. You could go into a cake shop and ask for 50/200 of a cake, but you'd probably get a funny look!

50/200 is, of course, the same as a quarter! Let's see why:
simplifying 50/200 into 1/4
Firstly we can remove a power of ten from the top and bottom of the fraction. In other words, cross off a zero.

Next, and this can be tricky (know your times tables!), we have to see if the top and bottom number have a common factor.

In this case, both 5 and 20 have 5 as a factor: so we can divide top and bottom by 5... giving 1/4 as the simplest fraction.

Simplifying fractions is sometimes called cancelling down.


GCSE Maths Go back a page GCSE Maths Maths Menu GCSE Maths Go to next page