What is the least common factor?

Answer 1

In math terminology, "least" means smallest or lowest. The least common factor is the smallest factor that is common to all the numbers being compared. Look at the results in the following examples.

Examples:

What is the least common factor of 19 and 24?

The factors of 19 are 1 and 19.

The factors of 24 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24.

The only common factor is 1, so the least common factor is 1.

What is the least common factor of 30 and 36?

The factors of 30 are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, and 30.

The factors of 36 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 36.

The common factors are 1, 2, 3, and 6, so the least common factor is 1.

What is the least common factor of 28 and 42?

The factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, and 28.

The factors of 42 are 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, and 42.

The common factors are 1, 2, 7, and 14, so the least common factor is 1.

What is the least common factor of 96 and 120?

The factors of 96 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, and 96.

The factors of 120 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30, 40, 60, and 120.

The common factors are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24, so the least common factor is 1. As you can see, the smallest factor of two or more numbers is 1.