Unit 2.

Divisibility
4 Greatest common factor of two or more numbers
Recall that a number that divides another number evenly is a factor of that number.
The number 64 can be evenly divided by 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64, so the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 are factors of 64.
A number that is a factor of two or more numbers is a common factor of those numbers.

Glossary:
Example:
The factors of 30 are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, and 30.
The factors of 105 are 1, 3, 5, 7, 15, 21, 35, and 105.
The common factors of 30 and 105 are 1, 3, 5, and 15.
The greatest common factor (GCF) is the largest common factor of two or more numbers.
The greatest common factor of 30 and 105 is 15.

Common factor
Greatest common factor

Listing the factors of each number is one way of finding the GCF. Another way to find the
GCF is to use the prime factorization of each number.

Example: To find the GCF of 126 and 180, find the prime factorization of each number and write the factorization of each
number in a table.
Circle the least product in each column that does not have a blank.
The GCF is the product of the circled numbers.
126
63
21
7
1

2
3
3
7

180
90
45
15
5
1

2
2
3
3
5

The GCF is the product of the circled numbers. The GCF(126,180) =

36

60

72