what is the easiest way to find greatest common factors for large numbers, for example = gcf of 2541 and 5929

Question

asnaseer · Answer

you need to express each number as a product of its unique primes, and then take the common factors from the two expressions.

asnaseer · Answer

in your example we would have:$$2451=3*7*11^{2}$$$$5929=7^{2}*11^{2}$$so c"common" factors here are 7 and 11^2 giving you the gcf of 7*11*11=847

anonymous · Answer

2541 = 3 * 7 * 11 * 11


5929 = 7 * 7 * 11 * 11

Common = 7 * 11 * 11 = 847 hence GCF = 847.

anonymous · Answer

Damn it! Haha nice answer asnaseer ;)

asnaseer · Answer

fewscrewsmissing - why "Damn it!"?

anonymous · Answer

Haha you beat me to the punch by like 3 seconds ;)

asnaseer · Answer

I didn't realise there was a race on. :-)