What is the greatest common factor of 42 and 55?

Answer 1

Answer:

The greatest common factor of 42 and 55 is 1.

The common factors of 42 and 55 are only 1.

Definition: A factor is a divisor - a number that will evenly divide into another number. The common factors of two or more numbers are all the factors that the numbers have in common. The greatest common factor of two or more numbers is the largest factor that the numbers have in common.

Methods:

One way to determine the common factors and greatest common factor is to find all the factors of the numbers and compare them.

The factors of 42 are 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, and 42.

The factors of 55 are 1, 5, 11, and 55.

The only common factor is 1. Therefore, the greatest common factor is 1, which means the numbers are relatively prime.

The greatest common factor can also be calculated by identifying the common prime factors and multiplying them together.

The prime factors of 42 are 2, 3, and 7.

The prime factors of 55 are 5 and 11.

There are no prime factors in common, so the numbers are relatively prime, which means the greatest common factor is 1.