6th GRADE - Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common

Multiple

1. Mira has two pieces of ribbon of lengths 18 cm and 24 cm respectively. She

wants to cut both pieces into smaller pieces of equal length that are as long as
possible.

What would be the length of each smaller piece?

2. A cinema runs its movies in two different halls 24/7. One movie runs for 80
minutes and the second one runs for 120 minutes. Both movies start at 1.00
p.m. When will the movies begin again at the same time?

3. Two bulbs flash at regular intervals of 30 and 36 seconds respectively. They

flash together at 10 45. At what time will they flash together (a) a second time
(b) a 5th time?

4. The chairs in a hall can be arranged in rows of 48 and 60. Find the least
number of chairs in the hall.

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 5. Three bus services A, B and C arrive at a station. Service
A arrives at the station every 15 minutes, service B arrives every 20 minutes
and service C arrives every 30 minutes. All three buses arrive at the station
together at 9 a.m. At what time will the three buses next arrive at the station at
the same time?

Practice Exercises:

• Write down all the multiples of 12 between 65 and 110.

• List all the multiples of 6 and 9 between 5 and 40.

• Find the common multiples of 6 and 9 and the L.C.M. of 6 and 9.

• Find the L.C.M. of :

(a) 15 and 20
(b) 24 and 3
(c) 48 and 72
(d) 30 and 45
(e) 18 and 54
(f) 30 and 42.

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 • Find the L.C.M. of the following:

(a)54, 60 and 90

(b) 34, 21 and 14

(c) 34, 119 and 196.

Find the smallest number which is exactly divisible by 21 and 35. 10. Find the smallest
number which when divided by 15 and 24 leaves a remainder of 13.

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HCF and LCM Formula
HCF (Highest Common Factor):

As has been taught in Factors and multiples, the factors of a number are all the
numbers that divide into it. Let’s proceed to the highest common factor (HCF) and
the least common multiple (LCM). As the rules of mathematics dictate, the
greatest common divisor or the gcd of two or more integers, when at least one of
them is not zero, happens to be the largest positive that divides the numbers
without a remainder. For instance, take 8 and 12, the gcd of these two numbers
or the HCF of two numbers will be 4. Since this greatest common divisor or GCD
is also known as the highest common factor or HCF.

LCM- Least Common Multiple:

In arithmetic, the least common multiple or LCM of two numbers, let’s assume a
and b, is denoted as LCM (a,b) is the smallest or least, as the name suggests, a
positive integer that is divisible by both a and b. Take the LCM of 4 and 6.
Multiples of four are: 4,8,12,16,20,24 and so on while that of 6 is 6,12,18,24….
The common multiples for four and six are 12,24,36,48…and so on. The least
common multiple in that lot would be 12. Let us now try to find out the LCM of 24
and 15.

LCM of 24 and 15 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 5 = 120

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How to find HCF and LCM?
Division method to find the HCF (Shortcut method)

Steps to find the HCF of any given numbers;

1) Larger number/ Smaller Number

2) The divisor of the above step / Remainder

3) The divisor of step 2 / Remainder. Keep doing this step till R = 0(Zero).

4) The last step’s divisor will be HCF.

The above steps can also be used to find the HCF of more than 3 numbers.

Finding LCM

Suppose there are two numbers, 8 and 12, whose LCM we need to find. Let us
write the multiples of these two numbers.

8 = 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, …

12 = 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84,…

You can see, the least common multiple or the smallest common multiple
between the two number, 8 and 12 is 24.

LCM of Fractions

To calculate the LCM of two numbers 60 and 45. Out of other ways, One way to
find the LCM of given numbers is as below:

• List the prime factors of each number first.

60 = 2 × 2 x 3 × 5
45 = 3 × 3 × 5

• Then multiply each factor the most number of times it occurs in any
number.

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If the same multiple occurs more than once in both the given
numbers, then multiply the factor the most number of times it occurs.

The occurrence of Numbers in the above example:

2: two times
3: two times
5: one times

LCM = 2 × 2 x 3 × 3 × 5 = 180

HCF and LCM Questions

Example: Find the Highest Common Factor of 25, 35 and 45.

Solution: Given, three numbers as 25, 35 and 45.

We know,

25 = 5 × 5

35 = 5 × 7

45 = 5 × 9

From the above expression, we can say 5 is the only common factor for all the
three numbers.

Therefore, 5 is the HCF of 25, 35 and 45.

Example: Find the Least Common Multiple of 36 and 44.

Solution: Given, two numbers 36 and 44.

Let us find out the LCM, by division method.

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Therefore, LCM(36, 44) = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 11 = 396

Prime Factorisation Method

Prime factorisation method and division method are explained in Maths to
determine the HCF(Highest Common Factor) and LCM(Least Common Multiple)
of a number. Basically, we determine the prime factors of the given number such
as 24, 12, 30, 100, etc. with this method. Here, we will learn to find the LCM and
HCF of the numbers by both the methods.

Least Common Multiple

The least or smallest common multiple of any two or more given natural numbers
are termed as LCM. It is also termed as Lowest Common Multiple.
For example, LCM of 10, 15, and 20 is 60.

Highest Common Factor

The largest or greatest factor common to any two or more given natural numbers
is termed as HCF of given numbers. It is also known as GCD (Greatest Common
Divisor).
For example, HCF of 4, 6 and 8 is 2.

Determination of LCM and HCF

We can find HCF and LCM of given natural numbers by two methods i.e. by prime
factorization method or alternatively by division method. In the prime factorization
method, given numbers are written as the product of prime* factors. While in the
division method, given numbers are divided by the least common factor and
continue still remainder is zero.

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*(Prime numbers are numbers which have only two factors i.e.
one and the number itself)
LCM By Prime Factorization method: Here given natural numbers are written
as the product of prime factors. The lowest common multiple will be the product
of the all prime factors with the highest degree (power).
Example 1: Find the LCM of 20 and 12 by prime factorization method.
Solution:
Step 1: To find LCM of 20 and 12 write each number as a product of prime
factors. 20=2×2×5=22×512=2×2×3=22×3
Step 2: Multiply all the prime factors with the highest degree.
Here we have 2 with highest power 2 and other prime factors 3 and 5. Multiply all
these to get LCM.

LCM of 20 and 12 = 2×2×3×5=22×3×5=60

LCM By Division method: In this method divide the given numbers by common
prime number until the remainder is a prime number or one. LCM will be the
product obtained by multiplying all divisors and remaining prime numbers.
Example 2: Find the LCM of 24 and 15 by division method.
Solution:
Step 1: Divide the given numbers by the least prime number.
Here, 2 is the least number which will divide 24.

Step 2: Write the quotient and the number which is not divisible by the above
prime number in the second row.
In the second row, write the quotient we get after the division of 24 by 2. Since
15 is not divisible by 2 write 15 in the second row as it is.

Step 3: Divide the numbers with another least prime number.

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Step 4: Continue division until the remainder is a prime
number or 1.

Step 5: Multiply all the divisors and remaining prime number (if any) to obtain the
LCM.

LCM of 24 and 15= 2×2×2×3×5=23×3×5=120

HCF By Prime Factorization method: Given natural numbers are written as the
product of prime factors. To obtain the highest common factor multiply all the
common prime factors with the lowest degree (power).
Example 1: Find the HCF of 20 and 12 by prime factorization method.
Solution:
Step 1: To find HCF of 20 and 12 write each number as a product of prime factors.
20 = 2 × 2 × 5 = 22 × 5
12 = 2 × 2 × 3 = 22 × 3
Step 2: Multiply all the common prime factors with the lowest degree.
Here we have only 2 as a common prime factor with the lowest power of 2.

HCF of 20 and 12 =

HCF By Division method: In this method divide the largest number by the
smallest number of the given numbers until the remainder is zero. The last divisor
will be the HCF of given numbers.
Example 2: Find the LCM of 24 and 15 by division method.
Solution:
Step 1: Divide the largest number by the smallest number.
Here, the largest number is 24 and the smaller one is 15. Divide 24 by 15

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Step 2: Take divisor as new dividend and remainder as the new divisor, i.e. divide
the first divisor by the first remainder.

Step 3: Proceed this still the remainder is zero and the last divisor will be the HCF
of the given numbers.

Therefore, HCF of 24 and 15 is 3.

Alternatively, we can divide both the numbers by the least common prime factor
still there is no more common prime factor. Multiply all divisors to get the HCF of
given numbers.

Consider the above example, HCF of 24 and 15 can be calculated by following

steps:
Step 1: Divide the given numbers by the least common prime factor.

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Here, 3 is the least common prime factor of 24 and 15.

Step 2: Continue still there is no more common prime factor. Then multiply all the
divisor.

Division of 24 and 15 by 3 will leave 8 and 5 as

remainders respectively. 8 and 5 do not have a common prime factor.
Hence, the HCF of 24 and 15 is 3.

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