Question

A group of students wants to develop a calculator to reduce a fraction. The steps to do so are laid out in their math book as follows: Express both the numerator (top number) and denominator (bottom number) as a product of their prime factors. Strike out any common factors. Multiply the remaining numbers to obtain the reduced numerator and denominator. Which of the following elements would be appropriate to use in the algorithm? (1 point) Responses two queues to pop out the prime factors for comparison two queues to pop out the prime factors for comparison a queue and a stack to pop out the prime factors for comparison a queue and a stack to pop out the prime factors for comparison two lists to hold the prime factors for comparison two lists to hold the prime factors for comparison two stacks to pop out the prime factors for comparison

Answer 1

To develop a calculator for reducing fractions using the prime factorization method, the appropriate choice among the options provided would be two queues to pop out the prime factors for comparison.

Using two queues allows for easy comparison of the prime factors: you can dequeue (pop out) the front element of both queues and check for common factors. This approach is efficient as you can traverse both sets of prime factors in a sequential order.

Other options, such as stacks or lists, have less suitable characteristics for this particular algorithm, as stacks operate on a last-in, first-out (LIFO) principle, making it less intuitive for comparison tasks where order matters, and lists would require additional looping sometimes to accomplish the same task efficiently.

Therefore, the best choice for this algorithm is two queues to pop out the prime factors for comparison.