Question

How do you find the greatest common factor of 12 and 60?

Answer 1

The greatest common factor of `12` and `60` is `12`.

Explanation:

What is the greatest common factor (GCF)?
That is the largest number that will divide into all those given.
To find it, the smallest prime numbers should be divided into each one. Prime numbers are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19.

Notice that `1` is not a prime number, and it has been left out of the list since division by `1` is usually frivolous. But, in this case we can see that `12` itself is a factor of `60`.

So, if we divide `12` by `1`, and `60` by `5`, we get `12` for both.

Then, `12` is the GCF for `12` and `60`.