Question:
In Q.No. 7, HCF (a, b) is
(a) pq
(b) $p^{3} q^{3}$
(c) $p^{3} q^{2}$
(d) $p^{2} q^{2}$
Solution:
Two positive integers are expressed as follows:
$a=p q^{2}$
$b=p^{3} q$
p and q are prime numbers.
Then, taking the smallest powers of p and q in the values for a and b we get
$\operatorname{HCF}(a, b)=p q$
Hence the correct choice is (a).