Simplification Station: Recycling Plant
Reduce. Reuse. Calculate.
Waste Protocol Active. The factory is clogged with bulky, unsimplified fractions. In Simplification Station, you must crush these numbers down to their most efficient form.
Simplifying (or cancelling) fractions makes them easier to understand and work with. $50/100$ is clunky; $1/2$ is clean, efficient, and ready for recycling.
♻️ Processing Manual (The Method)
To simplify $12/18$:
- Find a Common Factor: Both divide by 2? Yes -> $6/9$.
- Check Again: Do 6 and 9 share a factor? Yes, 3.
- Divide Again: $6 \div 3 = 2$, $9 \div 3 = 3$. New fraction: $2/3$.
- Simplest Form: 2 and 3 share no factors (except 1). The process is complete.
Site Manager Skills (Year 6)
Simplification
Use common factors to simplify fractions; use common multiples to express fractions in the
same denomination.
Common Factors
Identify common factors, common multiples and prime numbers.
👨👩👧 Efficiency Tips
Shortcuts for the factory floor:
- "If both numbers are even, just halve them! You can always halve them again."
- "If they end in 0 or 5, divide by 5."
- "Look for the Highest Common Factor (HCF) to do it in one big jump!"
