Solution: The GCF of 38 and 52 is 2
Methods
How to find the GCF of 38 and 52 using Prime Factorization
One way to find the GCF of 38 and 52 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 38?
What are the Factors of 52?
Here is the prime factorization of 38:
2
1
×
1
9
1
2^1 × 19^1
2 1 × 1 9 1
And this is the prime factorization of 52:
2
2
×
1
3
1
2^2 × 13^1
2 2 × 1 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 38 and 52 by multiplying all the matching prime factors to get a GCF of 38 and 52 as 4:
Thus, the GCF of 38 and 52 is: 4
How to Find the GCF of 38 and 52 by Listing All Common Factors
The first step to this method of finding the Greatest Common Factor of 38 and 52 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, 38 and 52:
Factors of 38: 1, 2, 19, 38
Factors of 52: 1, 2, 4, 13, 26, 52
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 38 and 52 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 5 and 39?
What is the GCF of 114 and 125?
What is the GCF of 118 and 96?
What is the GCF of 146 and 103?
What is the GCF of 120 and 72?