To work this out, you first need to break the numbers down into their prime factors. This gives:
72 = 2x2x2x3x3
27 = 3x3x3
The next step is to identify any common prime factors. In this case both numbers have two 3s as prime factors. Multiply these together and you get:
3x3 = 9
Therefore the HCF of 72 and 27 is 9.
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