Solution: The GCF of 138 and 86 is 2
Methods
How to find the GCF of 138 and 86 using Prime Factorization
One way to find the GCF of 138 and 86 is to compare the prime factorization of each number. To find the prime factorization, you can follow the instructions for each number here:
What are the Factors of 138?
What are the Factors of 86?
Here is the prime factorization of 138:
2
1
×
3
1
×
2
3
1
2^1 × 3^1 × 23^1
2 1 × 3 1 × 2 3 1
And this is the prime factorization of 86:
2
1
×
4
3
1
2^1 × 43^1
2 1 × 4 3 1
When you compare the prime factorization of these two numbers, you can see that there are matching prime factors. You can now find the Greatest Common Factor of 138 and 86 by multiplying all the matching prime factors to get a GCF of 138 and 86 as 4:
Thus, the GCF of 138 and 86 is: 4
How to Find the GCF of 138 and 86 by Listing All Common Factors
The first step to this method of finding the Greatest Common Factor of 138 and 86 is to find and list all the factors of each number. Again, you can see how this is done by looking at the “Factors of” articles that are linked to above.
Let’s take a look at the factors for each of these numbers, 138 and 86:
Factors of 138: 1, 2, 3, 6, 23, 46, 69, 138
Factors of 86: 1, 2, 43, 86
When you compare the two lists of factors, you can see that the common factor(s) are 1, 2. Since 2 is the largest of these common factors, the GCF of 138 and 86 would be 2.
Find the GCF of Other Number Pairs
Want more practice? Try some of these other GCF problems:
What is the GCF of 49 and 87?
What is the GCF of 76 and 28?
What is the GCF of 12 and 148?
What is the GCF of 135 and 43?
What is the GCF of 98 and 102?