Basic Functions
Advanced

Simplify a ratio with GCD

Divide both sides by their greatest common divisor.

Task:

The mixing sheet gives ingredient quantities in grams, but the recipe card wants the simplest whole-number ratio, such as 3:2. In C2:C5 write each ratio in its simplest form.

Interactive Spreadsheet

Read about GCD, LCM

Hints

+5 XPno-hints bonus

Solve it on your own to keep the bonus. Each hint gets one step closer to the formula.

Variations of GCD, LCM

0/3

The same formula in the other shapes it takes at work.

  1. GCD and LCM Functions

    Two maintenance cycles, and the arithmetic for putting them on one calendar.

    Core
    Advanced
  2. Simplify a ratio with GCD

    Divide both sides by their greatest common divisor.

    Advanced
  3. LCM of three cycles: when do they all line up?

    LCM takes more than two numbers.

    Advanced

The data in this exercise

This is the grid you start with. Cell references in the task — B6, C2 — point at the row numbers and column letters below.

5 rows × 3 columns4 cells you fill in
ABC
1Ingredient A (g)Ingredient B (g)Ratio
2600400
3250750
4480360
5700700
What this exercise teachesMay contain the answer

600:400 and 3:2 describe the same mix, but only one of them is easy to scale to any batch size. Dividing both by the GCD (200 here) is exactly what you did by hand at school; GCD just finds the divisor for you.