Greatest Common Factor Encyclopedia Article

Greatest Common Factor

The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.

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The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.

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Greatest Common Factor

The greatest common factor (or greatest common divisor) of a set of natural numbers is the largest natural number that divides each member of the set evenly (with no remainder). For example, 6 is the greatest common factor of the set {12, 18, 30} because 12 ÷ 6 = 2, 18 ÷ 6 = 3, and 30 ÷ 6 = 5.

Similarly, the greatest common factor of a set of polynomials is the polynomial of highest degree that divides each member of th set with no remainder. For example, 3(x+2)3(x-4)2, 12(x+2)4(x-4)3(x2+x+5), and 6(x+2)2(x-4) have 3(x+2)2(x-4) for the highest common factor.