What is the greatest common factor of 72x^2y and 18xy? Select one of the options below as your answer: A. 9x B. 9xy C. 18x D. 18xy
Mathematics · High School · Sun Jan 24 2021
Answered on
Given the values:
72x^2y
18xy
Determine the greatest common factor.
Solution:
In order to determine the greatest common factor ( gcf ), we simply need to list all the possible factors of 72 and 18 first.
Factors of 18:
1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 18
Factors of 72:
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 72
It can be seen that the greatest common factor for both numbers is 18.
Since both numbers have term, we factor out the term with the lowest degree, since that is considered to be their greatest common factor. In such case, we will factor out x and y along with 18, therefore it will become
= 18xy
Final answer:
= 18xy