Question

Find the common factors of 4, 8, and 12.

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this question, we will first find the factors of 4, 8 and 12 individually and then filter out the common ones between them. The factor of a number is defined as a number which divides the given number completely. For example, factors of 10 are 1, 2, 5 and 10.

Complete step-by-step answer:
We need to find the common factors of 4, 8 and 12. First we will write the individual factors-
Factors(4) - 1, 2, 4
Factors(8) - 1, 2, 4, 8
Factors(12) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
From these, we can clearly see that 1, 2 and 4 are the factors of all the three numbers 4, 8 and 12 respectively. Hence, the common factors are- 1, 2, 4.
This is the required answer.

Note: Students often get confused between factors and multiples of a number. A factor is a number which exactly divides the given number. A multiple is a number which is exactly divided by the given number. For example,
Factors(10) - 1, 2, 5, 10
Multiples(10) - 10, 20, 30 and so on