Explanation:
To find the greatest common factor (GCF) of 8, 16, and 40, we can determine the largest number that evenly divides all three of them.
Let's first find the prime factorization of each number:
- 8 = 2 * 2 * 2
- 16 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2
- 40 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 5
Now, let's identify the common factors by finding the minimum exponent for each prime factor:
- 2 is a common factor with an exponent of 2 (appearing twice in the prime factorization of 8 and 16).
- 5 is not a common factor since it appears only in the prime factorization of 40.
The GCF is obtained by multiplying the common factors with their respective minimum exponents:
GCF = 2^2 = 4
Therefore, the greatest common factor of 8, 16, and 40 is 4.