You have already learned how the rational number system is made up of quantities that can be shown as fractions. A fraction, as you know, is a number that comes from dividing two whole numbers, or integers. We can therefore show any fraction, or rational number, as a pair of integers that we call the numerator and denominator. In some cases, the numerator may be evenly divisible by the denominator so that the result of the division, or quotient, is another whole number. For example, the fraction 6/3 is clearly equivalent to the integer 2, because the division of 6 by 3 results in 2. In most cases, a fraction’s value will not be equal to a whole number. We thus require two integers to represent these fractions. We also learned that many different equivalent fractions may stand for the same value. The fraction 2/3, for example, may also be represented by the equivalent fractions 4/6, 6/9, 8/12, and any other fraction whose numerator and denominator divide to the same quantity. When the numerator and denominator are each the lowest of all possible choices for the fractional value, we say that the fraction is shown in its lowest terms.