what is the lowest common factor means?

Answer 1

if two number such as 3 and 5, the lowest it gets is 15. you just have to multiply two things together most cases when you dont see common factors such as 2 or 3 . Not 1 sometimes itself too

hope it helps

Answer 2

Lowest Common Factor

Answer 3

There is no such thing as a lowest common factor. I guess there could be, but it would always be 1, for any two numbers you were given. You can either have a lowest common multiple, or greatest(highest) common factor.

Take the numbers 12 and 15.
The factors of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12.
The factors of 15 are 1, 3, 5, and 15.

The highest number that is in both of these sets is 3, so the highest common factor is 3. This number will always be less than or equal to the smallest number you are given.

Now consider 6 and 9.
Multiples of 6: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36
Multiples of 9: 9, 18, 27, 36

Therefore the lowest common multiple of 6 and 9 is 36. This number will always be greater than or equal to the larger number you are given.

Answer 4

This is a link to info> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_factor
Basically you have 2 different #'s that have a number in common.
The number 6 & the number 12 both are divided by 2 as the lowest factor.
The #10 & the #15 are the number 5 because 2 can go into 10 but it can't also go into 15 so it's not common for both. Hope this helps.
edit* Lowest common denominator is what I guessed you were going for.

Answer 5

I think you are confusing terms here, of Greatest Common Factor and Least Common Multiple.

Factors of a number that can be multiplied togeather to get a number, for instance 4 and 5 are factors of 20.

2, 2, and 5 are prime factors of 20

Common factors are those numbers that are in two or more numbers being compared.

factors of 6 are 1, 2, 3 and 6
factors of 8 are 1, 2,4, and 8
the Greatest common factor of these two numbers is 2

Common multiple means a number both can be factors of.

Multiples of 8 are 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 .... etc
Multiples of 6 are 5, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 44 ... etc

both 24 and 48 are multiples of both 5 and so they are common multiples, however 24 is the least common multiple.

Now if we are truly talking least common factor then this will always be 1.

Answer 6

The lowest common factor is the lowest number that 2 products, or numbers have in common,
example,
The LCF of 21, and 12 is 3.

Answer 7

Do you mean: the lowest common multiple (LCM) or the greatest common factor (GCF) ?


Lowest Common Multiple (LCM)
In arithmetic and number theory, the least common multiple or lowest common multiple (LCM) or smallest common multiple of two integers a and b is the smallest positive integer that is a multiple of both a and b. Since it is a
multiple, a and b divide it without remainder. If there is no such positive integer, e.g., if a = 0 or b = 0, then lcm(a, b) is defined to be zero.
For example, the least common multiple of the numbers 4 and 6 is 12.

Greatest Common Factor (GCF)
In mathematics, the greatest common divisor (GCD), sometimes known as the greatest common factor (GCF) or highest common factor (HCF), of two non-zero integers, is the largest positive integer that divides both numbers without remainder.

Answer 8

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
what is the lowest common factor means?

Answer 9

I am uncertain that there is a lowest common factor, but there is the least common multiple. The Highest Common Factor (HCF),is the largest number that divides evenly into both numbers. The Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) is or lowest common multiple (lcm) or smallest common multiple of two integers a and b is the smallest positive integer that is a multiple of both a and b. Hope this helps as I do enjoy math problems.

Answer 10

Common factor usually refers to whole, non-zero factors. By this definition, the lowest common factor of any set of whole numbers would be 1.