LEAST COMMON

DENOMINATOR EXAMPLES

BACK

NEXT

Example 1
What is the LCD of

and

It's 35, 'cause that's the smallest number that's divisible by both 5 and 7.

Example 2
What is the LCD of

and

Our LCD is 4, since 4 is the smallest number that's divisible by both denominators.

Example 3
What is the LCD of

and ?

It's 12, because 12 is the smallest number divisible by both 4 and 6.

Example 4
Find the LCD of

and

First, we write out the prime factorization of each denominator. That's going to give us 3
7 and 2 3 5. To get our LCD, we simply multiply one of each type of prime
number together.
So we'll need to hang onto our 3 7, but we can eliminate the 3 from the second set of
prime factors since it's a repeat. Our LCD will be 3 7 2 5 = 210. Not that small of a
number, but it's smaller than it would be if we simply took 21 30.

Example 5
Find the LCD of

and

First write out the prime factorizations of the denominators:

and
As before, we've got exactly one repeated 3, so we can throw one of them out.
Therefore, rather than taking 2 2 3 3 3 5, we just have to take 2 2 3 3
5. Only slightly less work, but we'll take it. It's not like we're making commission on this.
LCD = 2 2 3 3 5 = 180