Calculate the Greatest Common Factor or GCF of 72 and 3156
Sponsors
The instructions to find the GCF of 72 and 3156 are the next:
1. Decompose all numbers into prime factors
| 72 | 2 |
| 36 | 2 |
| 18 | 2 |
| 9 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 1 |
| 3156 | 2 |
| 1578 | 2 |
| 789 | 3 |
| 263 | 263 |
| 1 |
2. Write all numbers as the product of its prime factors
| Prime factors of 72 | = | 23 . 32 |
| Prime factors of 3156 | = | 22 . 3 . 263 |
3. Choose the common prime factors with the lowest exponent
Common prime factors: 2 , 3
Common prime factors with the lowest exponent: 22, 31
4. Calculate the Greatest Common Factor or GCF
Remember, to find the GCF of several numbers you must multiply the common prime factors with the lowest exponent.
GCF = 22. 31 = 12
Also calculates the: