The greatest common factor (GCF) of a polynomial is the largest monomial that divides evenly into each term. It's very similar to the greatest common factor you calculated, except that polynomial GCFs usually contain one or more variables.
Can the GCF be a variable?
In general, the variable part of the GCF for any two or more monomials will be equal to the variable part of the monomial with the lowest power of x. ... Since the lowest power of x is x2start color #e07d10, x, squared, end color #e07d10, that will be the variable part of the GCF.
How do you use GCF with variables?
Finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF): To find the GCF of two expressions:
- Factor each coefficient into primes. Write all variables with exponents in expanded form.
- List all factors—matching common factors in a column. ...
- Bring down the common factors that all expressions share.
- Multiply the factors as in (Figure).
