Factors and GCF

Factors and GCF

You are probably now wondering how do factors and GCF. You are in an excellent place! GCF stands for Greatest Common Factor. I guess now you are wondering what factor means. Well it is a number that divides the number evenly.

Finding the Factors

This is how you find the factors of a number.

1. You will have a number like 56 for instance. You will need to write down factors that can go into 56.

example 56= 1,56,2,28,4,14,7,8,

hint you will know when you are done writing down all the factors if you times the last number by itself.

2. When you write the numbers out put them in pairs.

example 2 x 28 =56 4 x 14 =56 7 x8 =56

Finding the GCF

Here is how you find the GCF.

1. Find the factors of two numbers.

example 30= 1,30,2,15,3,10,5,6 24= 1,24,2,12,3,8,4,6

hint if you have more than two numbers, you can just find the factors of the lowest number, even in this situation.

2. Now you need to look at the two numbers and think if any of their factors can go into the two numbers.

example the factor that the numbers have in common is 6 so 6 is the GCF.

Real Life Application

So say you have the fraction 16/20 and you want to simplify it.

1. Find the GCF of 16 and 20.

example 16= 1,16,2,8,4 20= 1,20,2,10,4,5 The GCF is 4.

2. You need to divide 16 and 20 by 4 to simplify the fraction.

example 16/20 divided by 4/4 = 4/5.

Here is an awesome link to explain more about GCF.

How To Find The Greatest Common Factor (GCF)