How do you find the GCF of $12xy, 16x^2y$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2017-06-27T23:16:57

See a solution process below:

To find the GCF of the two terms first, factor each term separately:

$12xy = color(red)(2) xx color(red)(2) xx 3 xx color(red)(x) xx color(red)(y)$

$16x^2y = color(red)(2) xx color(red)(2) xx 2 xx 2 xx color(red)(x) xx x xx color(red)(y)$

Now, take ALL the common factors from each term and combine them to find the GCF:

$color(red)(2) xx color(red)(2) xx color(red)(x) xx color(red)(y) = 4xy$

How do you find the GCF of 12xy, 16x^2y12xy, 16x^2y?