So, the other day I was messing around with some numbers, just for fun, you know? And I stumbled upon this fraction, 17/60. I was like, “Hmm, can I make this simpler?” Turns out, 17 is a prime number. You can only divide it by 1 and itself. So, that was a dead end right there.
I gave it some thought and started to recall what I learned a long time ago. I remember that to simplify a fraction, both the top and bottom numbers should be divisible by the same number. But, because 17 is a prime, I was stuck.
Then, I decided to look at 60. I started listing out the numbers that can divide 60 without leaving any leftovers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60. I got excited for a moment, thinking I could find a common number with 17, but nope. 17 just wasn’t playing along.
- I tried dividing 17 by 2, got 8.5. Not a whole number, so that’s a no-go.
- Tried dividing by 3, got around 5.67. Still not a whole number.
- Tried 4, 5, and 6, but the result was not a whole number.
- Then I went through the rest of the numbers: 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and even 60. Each time, I got a decimal, not a whole number.
After all that, I realized 17/60 is as simple as it gets. It is already in its simplest form. It cannot be simplified any further.
Later I did some reading on the internet, there was something about sense-making. It’s like looking back and trying to understand stuff. So I did that with my little fraction adventure. I realized that not everything can be simplified. Sometimes, what you see is what you get. Just like our life, right? I was born, I will keep moving forward until one day I die. That is a story that cannot be simplified, I guess.
Just like those stories in books. I once read that a story, like the one in Genesis 37-50, tells you what happened. It is straightforward. And that is kind of what I did with my fraction. I laid out the facts, tried different things, and saw what happened.
And, you know what? It made me think about other stuff too. Like how many times your heart beats in a day, or how many cells are in your body. Big numbers, just like my fraction, and they all have their own stories. Some things are complex, some are simple, but they are all part of the bigger picture.
So, that is my little adventure with 17/60.
It was not just about numbers; it was about seeing things as they are and understanding that simplicity is not always possible.
