Matt made two types of pie: strawberry and blueberry. He cut all of the strawberry pies into 20 slices each and all of the blueberry pies into 15 slices each. If Matt cut the same total number of slices of each type of pie, what is the minimum number of slices of each type he could have cut? I am very confused by this, PLEASE HELP
THANK YOU
To find the minimum number of slices of each type of pie that Matt could have cut, we need to find the lowest common multiple (LCM) of 20 and 15.
One way to find the LCM is to make a list of multiples for each number and find the smallest number that appears in both lists.
Multiples of 20: 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, ...
Multiples of 15: 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165, 180, ...
From these lists, we can see that the smallest number that appears in both lists is 60. Therefore, 60 slices is the minimum number of slices that Matt could have cut of each type of pie.
To understand this conceptually, think of it this way: the LCM of two numbers represents the smallest common multiple of both numbers. In this case, it represents the minimum number of slices that Matt could have cut where the total number of slices of each type is the same.