Question

Can someone help me with this please

Answer 1

Answer:  4

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Explanation:

For now, ignore the variables. Let's just focus on the coefficients 12 and 16.

The GCF of 12 and 16 is 4 because this is the largest factor they have in common.

12 = 4*3

16 = 4*4

You could create a factor tree to get the prime factorization of each number

12 = 2*2*3

16 = 2*2*2*2

Each factor tree has two copies of '2' leading to the GCF 2*2 = 4.

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Now let's go back to the variables. The term 12n and 16w^3 do not have any variables in common. So the final answer won't have any variables in it. If both terms had say a 'w' in them, then w would somehow be involved in the GCF. But that's not the case here. So we just stick to 4 as our answer.

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Side note: If you had 12n+16w^3 and you wanted to factor, then you would factor out the GCF 4 to get 12n+16w^3 = 4(3n+4w^3). Use the distribution rule to confirm this.