MathChat

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

And boy is that true in math! Of the standard school subjects, math requires the most practice, if you want to excel at it.

That being the case, this strikes me as a great time to practice the divisibility tricks we’ve just learned.

There are many skill areas where divisibility tricks are useful — solving proportions, factoring polynomials, multiplying fractions — but one of the most obvious is the critical skill of reducing fractions.

So now I’m offering you a chance to practice your divisibility skills for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. We will save the trick for 7 till we have a few more tricks “up our sleeves.”

For the following problems, answer these four questions:

1)  Which of these numbers — 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 — divides evenly into the numerator (NM)?

2)  Do the same for the denominator (DNM).

3)  Then choose the largest number that divides into both NM and DNM. For these problems, this number will be the GCF.

4)  Finally, reduce the fraction by dividing both NM and DNM by this number.

Here’s an example that shows what you’d write:

ex)  24/42

1)  NM:  2, 3, 4, 6
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 6
3)  GCF = 6
4)  Answer:   4/7

NOW TRY THESE PROBLEMS:

a)  20/24
b)  25/40
c)   18/48
d)  26/60
e)  21/72
f)  30/85
g)  36/66
h)  56/92
i)  84/102
j)  99/141

ANSWERS:

a)  20/24
1)   NM:  2, 4, 5
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 4, 6
3)  GCF =  4
4)  Answer:   5/6

b)  25/40
1)   NM:  5
2)  DNM:  2, 4, 5
3)  GCF =   5
4)  Answer:  5/8

c)   18/48
1)   NM:  2, 3, 6
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 4, 6
3)  GCF =  6
4)  Answer:  3/8

d)  26/60
1)   NM:  2
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3)  GCF =  2
4)  Answer:  13/30

e)  21/72
1)   NM:  3
2)  DNM:   2, 3, 4, 6
3)  GCF =   3
4)  Answer:   7/24

f)  30/85
1)   NM:  2, 3, 5, 6
2)  DNM:  5
3)  GCF =  5
4)  Answer:  6/17

g)  36/66
1)   NM:  2, 3, 4, 6
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 6
3)  GCF =  6
4)  Answer:  6/11

h)  56/92
1)   NM:  2, 4
2)  DNM:  2, 4
3)  GCF =  4
4)  Answer:  14/23

i)  84/102
1)   NM:  2, 3, 4, 6
2)  DNM:  2, 3, 6
3)  GCF =   6
4)  Answer:   14/17

j)  99/141
1)   NM:   3
2)  DNM:  3
3)  GCF =  3
4)  Answer:   33/47