Question

Two neon lights are turned on at the same time. One blinks every 6 seconds and the other blinks every 8 seconds. In 3 minutes how many times will they blink at the same time?

Answer 1

Both lights will blink at the same time 12 times in 3 minutes

Explanation:

Greatest Common Factor (GCF)

The greatest common factor of a set of numbers is the largest positive integer that divides exactly into all numbers. For example, 24 is the GCF of 6 and 8 because there is no smaller number who divides both numbers with zero-remainder.

We know two neon lights blink every 6 seconds and 8 seconds respectively. It means they coincide every 24 seconds. Thus it's only a matter of know how many times we can count 24 seconds in 300 seconds. We can easily find it by dividing 300/24=12.5

So both lights will blink at the same time 12 times in 3 minutes