Do you know your factors from your multiples? Can you list the first 10 prime numbers? Being able to find the Highest Common Factor (HCF) and Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of two numbers will help you when it comes to working with fractions, but there are also many real-life applications that use them. See how good you are in this GCSE Maths quiz.
When dealing with factors and multiples, the first thing to get right is which way round they go! A FACTOR goes into a number, and a MULTIPLE comes out of a number. All numbers have at least 2 factors – 1 and the number itself. You can list the factors of a number by writing them in pairs. The multiples of a number are simply the times tables of that number.