How to Find the HCF of 4 and 10 by Prime Factorization?

How to Find the HCF of 4 and 10 by Prime Factorization?

Greatest common factor (GCF) of 4 and 10 is 2.

GCF(4,10) = 2

We will now calculate the prime factors of 4 and 10, than find the greatest common factor (greatest common divisor (gcd)) of the numbers by matching the biggest common factor of 4 and 10.

We will first find the prime factorization of 4 and 10. After we will calculate the factors of 4 and 10 and find the biggest common factor number .

Step-1: Prime Factorization of 4

Prime factors of 4 are 2. Prime factorization of 4 in exponential form is:

4 = 22

Step-2: Prime Factorization of 10

Prime factors of 10 are 2, 5. Prime factorization of 10 in exponential form is:

10 = 21 × 51

Step-3: Factors of 4

List of positive integer factors of 4 that divides 4 without a remainder.

1, 2

Step-4: Factors of 10

List of positive integer factors of 10 that divides 4 without a remainder.

1, 2, 5

Final Step: Biggest Common Factor Number

We found the factors and prime factorization of 4 and 10. The biggest common factor number is the GCF number.
So the greatest common factor 4 and 10 is 2.

Also check out the Least Common Multiple of 4 and 10

Are you on the hunt for the GCF of 4 and 10? Since you're on this page I'd guess so! In this quick guide, we'll walk you through how to calculate the greatest common factor for any numbers you need to check. Let's jump in!

Want to quickly learn or show students how to find the GCF of two or more numbers? Play this very quick and fun video now!

First off, if you're in a rush, here's the answer to the question "what is the GCF of 4 and 10?":

GCF of 4 and 10 = 2

What is the Greatest Common Factor?

Put simply, the GCF of a set of whole numbers is the largest positive integer (i.e whole number and not a decimal) that divides evenly into all of the numbers in the set. It's also commonly known as:

  • Greatest Common Denominator (GCD)
  • Highest Common Factor (HCF)
  • Greatest Common Divisor (GCD)

There are a number of different ways to calculate the GCF of a set of numbers depending how many numbers you have and how large they are.

For smaller numbers you can simply look at the factors or multiples for each number and find the greatest common multiple of them.

For 4 and 10 those factors look like this:

  • Factors for 4: 1, 2, and 4
  • Factors for 10: 1, 2, 5, and 10

As you can see when you list out the factors of each number, 2 is the greatest number that 4 and 10 divides into.

Prime Factors

As the numbers get larger, or you want to compare multiple numbers at the same time to find the GCF, you can see how listing out all of the factors would become too much. To fix this, you can use prime factors.

List out all of the prime factors for each number:

  • Prime Factors for 4: 2 and 2
  • Prime Factors for 10: 2 and 5

Now that we have the list of prime factors, we need to find any which are common for each number.

In this case, there is only one common prime factor, 2. Since there are no others, the greatest common factor is this prime factor:

GCF = 2

Find the GCF Using Euclid's Algorithm

The final method for calculating the GCF of 4 and 10 is to use Euclid's algorithm. This is a more complicated way of calculating the greatest common factor and is really only used by GCD calculators.

If you want to learn more about the algorithm and perhaps try it yourself, take a look at the Wikipedia page.

Hopefully you've learned a little math today and understand how to calculate the GCD of numbers. Grab a pencil and paper and give it a try for yourself. (or just use our GCD calculator - we won't tell anyone!)

If you found this content useful in your research, please do us a great favor and use the tool below to make sure you properly reference us wherever you use it. We really appreciate your support!

  • "Greatest Common Factor of 4 and 10". VisualFractions.com. Accessed on November 11, 2022. http://visualfractions.com/calculator/greatest-common-factor/gcf-of-4-and-10/.

  • "Greatest Common Factor of 4 and 10". VisualFractions.com, http://visualfractions.com/calculator/greatest-common-factor/gcf-of-4-and-10/. Accessed 11 November, 2022.

  • Greatest Common Factor of 4 and 10. VisualFractions.com. Retrieved from http://visualfractions.com/calculator/greatest-common-factor/gcf-of-4-and-10/.

The GCF of 4 and 10 is 2.

Steps to find GCF

  1. Find the prime factorization of 4
    4 = 2 × 2
  2. Find the prime factorization of 10
    10 = 2 × 5
  3. To find the GCF, multiply all the prime factors common to both numbers:

    Therefore, GCF = 2

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Enter two numbers separate by comma. To find GCF of more than two numbers, click here.

The greatest common factor (GCF) is also known as greatest common divisor (GCD) or highest common factor (HCF).