Answer:
Explanation:
The greatest common divisor of two integers a and b is a divisor common to both integers that is greater than any other common divisor. The least common multiple of two integers a and b is the smallest positive integer that is a multiple of both a and b.
To find the smallest possible value of a+b, we can start by trying to find the smallest possible values of a and b that satisfy the given conditions.
Since the greatest common divisor of a and b is 5, we know that both a and b must be divisible by 5. We can write a = 5x and b = 5y, where x and y are positive integers.
The least common multiple of a and b is 55, so we know that both a and b must be factors of 55. We can write 55 as the product of its prime factors: 55 = 5 * 11. Since a is divisible by 5, we know that a must be equal to 5 or 25. Similarly, since b is divisible by 5, we know that b must be equal to 5 or 25.
There are four possible pairs of values for a and b: (5,5), (5,25), (25,5), and (25,25). The smallest of these is (5,5), which gives us a+b = 5+5 = 10. Therefore, the smallest possible value of a+b is 10.