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The greatest common factor, or GCF, is the largest positive integer that will divide evenly with no remainder into all the members of a given set of numbers. The least common multiple, or LCM, is the smallest positive integer that all the members of a given set of numbers will divide into evenly with no remainder. Factors go into numbers, numbers go into multiples.

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10y ago
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12y ago

LCM means least common multiple. GCF means greatest common factor. If we have two numbers a and b, then the LCM will be the least number which is a multiple of both a and b. The GCF will be the greatest number that a and b can both divide evenly into.

For example, if the numbers are 6 and 10, then the LCM will be 30 and the GCF will be 2.

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11y ago

Finding the Least Common Multiple you find the smallest number that both numbers will go into.

Finding the Greatest Common Factor, you find the largest number that will go into both numbers evenly.

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11y ago

Example: 30 and 42
Factor them.
2 x 3 x 5 = 30
2 x 3 x 7 = 42
Select the common factors.
2 x 3 = 6, the GCF
Combine the factors, eliminating duplicates.
2 x 3 x 5 x 7 = 210, the LCM
Check it.
30 x 42 = 1260
210 x 6 = 1260
It checks.

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11y ago

The GCF is the largest number that will divide evenly into all the members of a given set of numbers. The LCM is the smallest number that all the members of a given set will divide into.

Factors go into numbers, numbers go into multiples.

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8y ago

The greatest common factor, or GCF, is the largest positive integer that will divide evenly with no remainder into all the members of a given set of numbers. The least common multiple, or LCM, is the smallest positive integer that all the members of a given set of numbers will divide into evenly with no remainder. Factors go into numbers, numbers go into multiples.

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8y ago

The greatest common factor, or GCF, is the largest positive integer that will divide evenly with no remainder into all the members of a given set of numbers. The least common multiple, or LCM, is the smallest positive integer that all the members of a given set of numbers will divide into evenly with no remainder.

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12y ago

the gcf is when you try to find the greatest common number between a set of numbers and lcm is when you try to find the lowest multiple out of a set of numbers.

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11y ago

The word "common."

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Q: How are the GCF and LCM different?
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