549 is the hypotenuse of the Pythagorean triple 99-540-549. What is the greatest common factor of those three numbers?

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10 Factors 2015-07-06

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• 549 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 549 = 3 x 3 x 61, which can be written 549 = (3^2) x 61
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 2 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (2 + 1)(1 + 1) = 3 x 2  = 6. Therefore 549 has exactly 6 factors.
• Factors of 549: 1, 3, 9, 61, 183, 549
• Factor pairs: 549 = 1 x 549, 3 x 183, or 9 x 61
• Taking the factor pair with the largest square number factor, we get √549 = (√9)(√61) = 3√61 ≈ 23.430749

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