Two riders, A and B leave the starting line at the same time. A takes 12 minutes to complete one lap and the B takes 18 minutes. How long in minutes after they will it take for them to meet again at the starting line?
LCM(12,18) = ?
To find the time it takes for riders A and B to meet again at the starting line, we need to find the least common multiple (LCM) of their individual lap times.
The LCM is the smallest number that is divisible by both 12 and 18. To find it, we can list the multiples of each number until we find a common multiple:
Multiples of 12: 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, ...
Multiples of 18: 18, 36, 54, 72, 90, ...
From the multiples listed above, we can see that 36 is the smallest number that is divisible by both 12 and 18. Therefore, it will take 36 minutes for riders A and B to meet again at the starting line.