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Civil Service Greatest Common Factor 2018 PDF

The greatest common factor (GCF) of numbers is the largest positive integer that divides the numbers without a remainder. There are two methods to find the GCF: 1) List all the factors of each number and the GCF is the largest common factor. 2) Use prime factorization to express each number as a product of prime numbers, then the GCF is the product of the prime numbers that are common to all numbers. The GCF is used to reduce fractions to their lowest terms by dividing the numerator and denominator by the GCF. A quiz is provided to practice finding the GCF of numbers and using it to reduce fractions.

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Irhyn Deniña Bancaso
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274 views3 pages

Civil Service Greatest Common Factor 2018 PDF

The greatest common factor (GCF) of numbers is the largest positive integer that divides the numbers without a remainder. There are two methods to find the GCF: 1) List all the factors of each number and the GCF is the largest common factor. 2) Use prime factorization to express each number as a product of prime numbers, then the GCF is the product of the prime numbers that are common to all numbers. The GCF is used to reduce fractions to their lowest terms by dividing the numerator and denominator by the GCF. A quiz is provided to practice finding the GCF of numbers and using it to reduce fractions.

Uploaded by

Irhyn Deniña Bancaso
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Greatest Common Factor of

Numbers
The numbers that can divide an integer is called its factor or divisor. For example, the
factors of 4 are 1, 2, and 4 because these are the numbers that divide 4 without having a
remainder. Another example is 6 which has factors 1, 2, 3, and 6. It is clear that each
number has always 1 and itself as factors. Note that in this discussion, when I say
number, I mean positive integer.

If we select more than one number, we can observe that they have common factors (just
like having common multiples). Let’s have the following examples.

How to Get the Greatest Common Factor of Numbers


Example 1: What are the common factors of 12 and 18?
Factors of 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
Factors of 18: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18
If we examine the factors of 12 and 18, we see that there are 4 common
factors: 1, 2, 3 and 6. Among the factors, 6 is the largest. Therefore, we say
that 6 is thegreatest common factor (GCF) or greatest common divisor (GCD) of
12 and 18.Example 2 : Find the GCF of 20, 32, 28.
Factors of 20: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20
Factors of 32: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32
Factors of 28: 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 28
As we can see, the common factors of 20, 32, and 28 are 1, 2, and 4. The GCD
or GCF of the three numbers is 4.

Another way to get the greatest common factor of numbers is to write


their prime factorization. Prime factorization is the process of expressing a
number as product of prime numbers. A prime number is a number which
is only divisible by 1 and itself The first 10 prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13,
17, 19, 23, and 29.
We will use the examples above and use prime factorization in order to get their
greatest common factor.

Example 3: Find the GCF of 12 and 18 using prime factorization.


Prime factorization of 12: 2 × 2 × 3
Prime Factorization of 18: 2 × 3 × 3
Now to get the greatest common factor, we multiply the common factors to both
numbers. The common factors to both are 2 and 3, therefore, the greatest
common factor of 12 and 18 is 2 × 3 = 6.
Example 4: Find the GCF of 12 and 18 using prime factorization.
Prime factorization of 20: 2 × 2 × 5
Prime factorization of 32: 2 × 2 × 2 × 2
Prime factorization of 28: 2 × 2 × 2
In this example, 2 and 2 are common to all the three numbers, so the GCD or
GCD of these three numbers is 2 × 2 which is equal to 4.
The difference between the two methods is that in the first method, you list all
the factors and find the largest number. In the second method, you list the prime
factorization and the multiply the factors that are common to all numbers.

What’s the use of greatest common factor?


Well, GCF are used a lot in mathematics, but in the Civil Service Exam, you will
use it when you reduce fractions to lowest terms. For example, your finalanswer is

and is not on the choices. Then, you know that you have to get the greatest
common factor of 12 and 18 and divide both the numerator and denominator
by it. So, the answer is
Greatest Common Factor Quiz
Greatest Common Factor Quiz
Part 1: Get the greatest common factor of the following numbers.
1.) 12 and 15
2.) 18 and 28
3.) 36 and 45
4.) 56 and 72
5.) 26 and 65
6.) 8, 12, and 64
7.) 30, 45, and 54
8.) 10 and 31

Part 2: Reduce the following fractions to lowest terms.

9.)
10.)
11.)
12.)

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