The factors of 3 are 1 and 3 and the factors of 5 are 1 and 5.
Decide which of the following is the least common multiple of 3 and 5 and a correct description of what the value represents.
The lcm is 15
What following? What is your answer?
The least common multiple is 15. This is the lowest multiple the two numbers have in common.
To determine the least common multiple (LCM) of 3 and 5, you can list the multiples of both numbers and find the smallest multiple that they have in common.
For 3:
Multiples of 3: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, ...
For 5:
Multiples of 5: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, ...
As we can see, the multiples of 3 and 5 intersect at 15. Therefore, the LCM of 3 and 5 is 15.
The LCM represents the smallest positive number that is divisible by both 3 and 5. In other words, it is the smallest multiple that the two given numbers have in common. In this case, 15 is the smallest number that both 3 and 5 can evenly divide into.