Three pigs entered a race around a track. Piggly takes 6 minutes to run one lap. Piglet takes 3 minutes to run one lap and it takes Wiggly 5 minutes to run one lap. If all three pigs begin the race at the same time, how many minutes will it take for all three pigs to be at the staring point again?
6 minutes because the slowest pig takes 6 minutes to complete one lap
You are bad boy
To find out the time it will take for all three pigs to be back at the starting point, we can determine the least common multiple (LCM) of their lap times. The LCM is the smallest positive integer that is divisible by each lap time.
First, let's express the lap times in terms of a common unit, such as minutes:
- Piggly takes 6 minutes per lap
- Piglet takes 3 minutes per lap
- Wiggly takes 5 minutes per lap
The LCM of 6, 3, and 5 is 30. Therefore, we can conclude that all three pigs will be back at the starting point in 30 minutes.
To check this:
- After 30 minutes, Piggly will have completed 30/6 = 5 laps.
- After 30 minutes, Piglet will have completed 30/3 = 10 laps.
- After 30 minutes, Wiggly will have completed 30/5 = 6 laps.
Since all three pigs will have completed a whole number of laps in 30 minutes, they will be back at the starting point together. Thus, it will take 30 minutes for all three pigs to be back at the starting point again.
assuming
(a) they all begin at the starting point
(b) they all stop when they get back to the starting point
then by the time the slowest pig gets back, the others will already (still) be there.
So, 6 minutes.