Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiple

Examples 1 Find the highest common factor of 18 and 30.

Example 2 Find the HCF of 40, 60 and 100.
Example 3 Find the lowest common multiple of 30 and 36.
Example 4 Find the LCM of 12, 18 and 56.
Example 5 The lights on three lightships flash at regular intervals. The first light
flashes every 18 seconds, the second every 30 seconds and the third
every 40 seconds. The three lights flash together at 10.00 p.m. At
what time will they next flash together?

Exercise 1
1. Find the highest common factor of 56 and 84 using both methods.
2. Find the largest whole number which is a factor of both 28 and 70.
3. The numbers 504 and 588, written as the products of their prime factors,
are 504 = 23 × 32 × 7 and 588 = 22 × 3 × 72.
Hence, find the greatest whole number that will divide both 504 and 588
exactly.
4. Find the HCF of 90, 135 and 270.
5. Find the lowest common multiple of 24 and 90 using both methods.
6. The numbers 120 and 126, written as the products of their prime factors,
are 120 = 23 × 3 × 5 and 126 = 2 × 32 × 7.
Hence, find the smallest whole number that is divisible by both 120 and
126.
7. Find the smallest value of n such that the LCM of n and 6 is 24.
8. Find the LCM of 9, 30 and 108.
9. Three balls toll at regular intervals of 15 minutes, 16 minutes and 36
minutes respectively. Given that they toll together at 2.00 p. m, at what
time will they next toll together?
10. Farhan has three pieces of rope with lengths of 140 cm, 168 cm and 210
cm. He wishes to cut all the three pieces of ropes into smaller pieces of
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 equal length such that there is no leftover rope.
(i) What is the greatest possible length of each of the smaller pieces of
rope?
(ii) How many smaller pieces of rope can he get altogether?

Exercise 2
1. Find the highest common factor of each of the following sets of numbers.
(a) 12 and 30 (b) 84 and 156
(c) 15, 60 and 75 (d) 77, 91 and 143

2. Find the lowest common multiple of each of the following sets of

numbers.
(a) 24 and 30 (b) 42 and 462
(c) 12, 18 and 81 (d) 63, 80 and 102

3. Find the largest whole number which is a factor of both 42 and 98.

4. The numbers 792 and 990, written as the products of their prime factors,
are 792 = 23 × 32 × 11 and 990 = 2 × 32 × 5 × 11. Hence, find the
greatest whole number that will divide both 792 and 990 exactly.
5. The numbers 176 and 342, written as the products of their prime factors,
are 176 = 24 × 11 and 342 = 2 × 32 × 19. Hence, find the smallest
whole number that is divisible by both 176 and 342.
6. Find the smallest value of n such that the LCM of n and 15 is 45.
7. Huixian needs to pack 171 pens, 63 pencils and 27 erasers into identical
gift bags so that each item is equally distributed among the gift bags. Find
(i) the largest number of gift bags that can be packed,
(ii) the number of each item in a gift bag.
8. Two race cars, Car X and Car Y, are at the starting point of a 2-km track
at the same time. Car X and Car Y make one lap every 60 s and every

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 80s respectively.
(i) How long, in seconds, will it take for both cars to be back at the
starting point at the same time?
(ii) How long, in minutes, will it take for the faster car to be 5 laps ahead
of the slower car?
9. Determine whether each of the following statements is true or false. If it
is true, explain your reasoning. If it is false, give a counterexample.
(a) If 6 is a factor of a number, then 2 and 3 are also factors of that
number.
(b) If 2 and 3 are factors of a number, then 6 is also a factor of that
number.
(c) If 2 and 4 are factors of a number, then 8 is also a factor of that
number.
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(d) If f is a factor of n, then is also a factor of n.
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(e) If h is the HCF of p and q, then both p and q are divisible by h.

10. The LCM of 9, 12 and n is 252. If n is odd, find all the possible value of
n.

11. Determine whether each of the following statements is true or false. If it

is true, explain your reasoning. If it is false, give a counterexample.
(a) If 6 is a multiple of a number, then 12 is also a multiple of that
number.
(b) If 12 is a multiple of a number, then 6 is also a multiple of that
number.
(c) If 18 is a multiple of a number, then 18 is divisible by that number.
(d) If m is the LCM of p and q, then m is divisible by both p and q.

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