Question

Charles bought 7/8 foot of electrical wire and 5/6 foot of copper wire for his science project .What is the least common denominator of the fractions?

Answer 1

The least common denominator of the fractions is 24

Explanation:

we know that

The least common denominator (LCD) is the smallest number that can be a common denominator for a set of fractions

so

we have

7/8

Multiples of 8 -------> 8,16,24,32,...

5/6

Multiples of 6 -------> 6,12,18,24,...

24 is a common multiple of 6 and 8. It is their lowest common multiple

Alternative Method

we have

`8=2^(3)`

`6=2*3`

The least common multiple are those common and non-common numbers with the greatest exponent

so

`lcm= 2^(3)*3=24`