Greatest Common Factor (GCF) - College

Find the greatest common factor for the following polynomial:

Answer :

In order to solve the above, we must first define that the greatest common factor is the largest monomial that is a factor of each term of the polynomial. When we examine the numbers we find that the largest factor of each of the above numbers is 7. Now we must factor the variables. This is done by finding the variable with the highest exponent (power) that is a factor of :

This is found out to be:

Therefore by combining the two the answer will be:

For additional information go to: Lesson page for common factors

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