SOLUTION: I am having a hard time finding the GCF of 8x^2, -4x, and -20. I understand that the GCF of 8, 4 and 20 is 4 but I am not sure what to do with the letter x or the exponent of 2. A

Question 481600: I am having a hard time finding the GCF of 8x^2, -4x, and -20. I understand that the GCF of 8, 4 and 20 is 4 but I am not sure what to do with the letter x or the exponent of 2. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You can factor into x*x

You can't factor 'x' any further (in the term -4x). So the GCF between and is because they both have an 'x' in common.

However, there are no 'x' terms in -20. So this means that the GCF of the variable terms is not 'x'.

This then means that the GCF of , and -20 is 1 (since and ), but this is a trivial factor. So we can ignore it.

Therefore, the GCF of 8x^2, -4x, and -20 is 4
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