The highest common factor (HCF) of two consecutive odd numbers is always 1. This is because consecutive odd numbers differ by 2, making them co-prime.
To understand this better, let’s consider two consecutive odd numbers, for example, 5 and 7. The factors of 5 are 1 and 5, while the factors of 7 are 1 and 7. The only common factor they share is 1.
In general, any two odd numbers will not have any common factors other than 1, as they are not divisible by 2 and differ by an even number. Therefore, the HCF of any two consecutive odd numbers is consistently 1.