2 (a) Find the Highest Common Factor (HCF) of 60 and 84 - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 3 - 2021 - Paper 2

Question 3

2 (a) Find the Highest Common Factor (HCF) of 60 and 84.
(b) Find the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of 24 and 40.
Worked Solution & Example Answer:2 (a) Find the Highest Common Factor (HCF) of 60 and 84 - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 3 - 2021 - Paper 2
Find the Highest Common Factor (HCF) of 60 and 84

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To find the HCF of 60 and 84, we first find the prime factorization of both numbers:
-
60:
- Start with 2: 60 ÷ 2 = 30
- 30 ÷ 2 = 15
- 15 ÷ 3 = 5
- Therefore, the prime factors are: 2² × 3¹ × 5¹
-
84:
- Start with 2: 84 ÷ 2 = 42
- 42 ÷ 2 = 21
- 21 ÷ 3 = 7
- Therefore, the prime factors are: 2² × 3¹ × 7¹
Now, we find the common factors: 2² and 3¹.
The HCF is the product of the lowest powers of all common prime factors:
HCF=22×31=4×3=12
Find the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of 24 and 40

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To find the LCM of 24 and 40, we again start with the prime factorization:
-
24:
- 24 ÷ 2 = 12
- 12 ÷ 2 = 6
- 6 ÷ 2 = 3
- So, the prime factors are: 2³ × 3¹
-
40:
- 40 ÷ 2 = 20
- 20 ÷ 2 = 10
- 10 ÷ 2 = 5
- So, the prime factors are: 2³ × 5¹
For the LCM, we take the highest powers of all prime factors:
- From 24: 2³, 3¹
- From 40: 2³, 5¹
Thus, the LCM is:
LCM=23×31×51=8×3×5=120
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