The distributive property can be used to write the sum of two whole numbers as a product of their highest common factor and the sum of co-primes.
Example, the sum of 22 and 10. The highest common factor of 22 and 10 is 2 found using prime factorization.
[tex]22 = 2 \times 11[/tex]
[tex]10 = 2 \times 5[/tex]
∴ HCF = 2
Their sum can be written as,
[tex]22 + 10 = HCF \times \frac{(22 + 10)}{HCF} = 2 \times \frac{(11 + 5)}{1} = 2 \times (11 + 5) = 2 \times 16[/tex]
