How do you reduce a ratio to a simpler form?

Hi Dedrick,

There are a few techniques you can use. However I'll show you a simple method that you can start with.

Imagine you have the ratio 84:7

This in itself looks a little cumbersome, however with a couple of quick calculations it can be simplified.

Firstly, have a look to see if any of them are divisible by 2 (if they are both even numbers, then they are always divisible by two).

If they are not, take a look to see if they are numbers in the same multiplication tables, just quickly check through. In this case, they are part of the 7 times table.

Now simply divide by the times table they are in (this case, it's the 7 times table).

84 divided by 7 = 12

7 divided by 7 = 1

Your new ratio is 12:1

The trick is to practice your times tables regularly. If you do this, you'll be surprise how straight forward these can be!

Hope this helps,

Nick

To simplify a ratio, find a common factor of all the parts and divide by that number. Repeat that process until you can no longer find a common factor other than 1.

Eg 12:9. Simply find the highest number which can divide into both values. Here it is 3. So 12 divided by 3 is 4 and 9 divided by 3 is 3 so the simplified ratio is 4:3