Process of Finding the HCF and LCM of

Two Numbers
Q. Find the HCF and LCM of 84 and 72 using prime
factorization.
Solution:
The prime factorization of 84 and 72 are as follows:

HCF
Step 1:
List down the prime numbers that appear as the common
factors of both the numbers.
Here for 84 and 72, the prime numbers that appear as the
common factors are 2 and 3.
Step 2:
Now from the selected common prime factors, identify their
appearances with the lower index from the prime factorization
of both the numbers. Then collect these numbers and multiply
them to get the HCF.
Here, the common prime factor 2 appears as and in the
prime factorizations of 84 and 72, respectively. So, we need to
choose 2 with the lower index, that is .
Similarly, the common prime factor 3 appears as 3 and in
the prime factorizations of 84 and 72, respectively. 3 can be
expressed in index form as . So, we need to choose 3 with
the lower index, that is or 3.
Hence, the HCF of 84 and 72 will be or 12.

LCM:
Step 1:
List down all the prime numbers that appear as the factors of
both the numbers.
Here for 84 and 72, all the prime numbers that appear as the
factors are 2, 3, and 7.
Step 2:
Now from the selected prime factors, identify their
appearances with the higher index from the prime
factorization of both the numbers. Then collect these numbers
and multiply them to get the LCM.
Here, the common prime factor 2 appears as and in the
prime factorizations of 84 and 72, respectively. So, we need to
choose 2 with the higher index, that is .
Similarly, the common prime factor 3 appears as 3 and in
the prime factorizations of 84 and 72, respectively. So, we
need to choose 3 with the higher index, that is .
7 only appears once in the factorization of 84 and choose that.
Hence, the LCM of 84 and 72 will be or 504.

This process is applicable for finding the HCF and LCM

for more than two numbers also.