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Puckdropper

wrote in news:1161539089.540990.280170
@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

*snip*

I'm not clear on why it became customary in school to always
reduce fractions (is 'reduce' the right term?)

It's very clear when you're looking for the simplest form that there's
more than one way to represent a quantity. That may be why it's common
to do that.

What they don't teach (and should) is that sometimes in the real world
it's easier to leave the fraction unreduced and work with it.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

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