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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : How To Find The Lowest / Least Common Denominator
What is the least common denominator of and
?
To find the least common denominator of two numbers, it is easiest first to factor them into prime factors:
Now, you need to compare each number and choose the case in which the prime factor has the highest power. Therefore, since and
are found only in
, you will select those. You can take "either"
. Finally, the
in
is the largest factor of
. Your LCD is found by multiplying all of these together:
Example Question #2 : How To Find The Lowest / Least Common Denominator
Simplify:
To begin to solve this, you need to find the least common denominator of and
. The easiest way to do this is to begin by factoring them into prime factors:
The LCD is found by selecting the largest power for each factor across the two values. Therefore, you will take ,
, and
from
and the
from the
. Your LCD is therefore:
.
Now, apply this to your fractions:
Example Question #3 : How To Find The Lowest / Least Common Denominator
In simplest form,
First, find the smallest number that both and
will factor into, which is
.
This means that the fist fraction should be multiplied by and the second should be multiplied by
.
Therefore,
.
Then, add the numerators while the denomenators stay the same:
.
Then, reduce the fraction to its lowest terms:
.
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