How do you find out what is the greatest common factor of 8 and 12?

Answer 1

Firstly, you need to find the Prime number factors and the letter factors of 24p3q and 12p2.

24p3q = 23 * 3 * p3 * q

12p2 = 22 * 3 * p2

(Note: Remember that the power of each factor there represents how many of that number or letter are multiplied together with the others, so 22 = 2 * 2 and p3 = p * p * p.)

To find the Greatest Common Factor, you pick the highest amount of each factor, then multiply all of those together. 24p3q has three 2's (23), but 12p2 only has 22, so you can only include and multiple two 2's, or in other words, 22. The factor q is not present in 12p2, so you cannot include it.

The factors common to both, as you will find, are 22,3and p2. These multiply together to make

12p2

which in this case is one of the two numbers you began with.

Answer 2

Divide both 8 and 12 by successively larger whole numbers when you cannot find any larger whole number divisors for both that leave no remainder you have found the greatest common factor.

The GCF of 8 and 12 is 4

Answer 3

The GCf is 4p3q2

Answer 4

It is 4p^3q^2.