What is LCM

L = lowest = smallest

C = common = same

M = multiple = the times table

So if a question asks "what's the LCM of 3 and 5" you can think:

• What is the 3 times table? eg 3, 6, 9, 12...
• What is the 5 times table? eg 5, 10, 15, 20...
• Keep going until you find the first number which is in the 3 times table and the 5 times table.

There are more technical ways of answering this sort of question, but you can get by as long as you understand the words of LCM.

LCM means Least Common multiple or factor. It is also the multiple of any two or more given integers. For example: LCM of 16 and 20 will be 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 X 5 = 80. Where 80 is the smallest common multiple for numbers 16 and 20.

It is the lowest common number that two separate numbers share in their times tables. Fist you need to separate the two numbers into their prime factors. Then you multiply together the common prime factor(s) with the highest power and the prime factors that are not common. The answer will be the LCM of your two numbers.

LCM is a method where you have two or more numbers, and you fild the smallest number that can be multiplied into all of the numbers.

For example ; Q: Find the LCM of 20 and 25

So here, we could first try 2 as the LCM, however because 25 is odd we know that no even number can be a multiple.

Therefore the smallest number that can go into both 20 and 25 is 5.

5x4 = 20

5x5 = 25

Least/Lowest Common Multiple. The smallest positive integer that is divisible by both A and B. For example - if it was for 4 and 6, the LCM would be 2.

The LCM is the lowest common multiple.

The quickest and easiest way to find the LCM is to start with the higher or the highest of the numbers and multiply by 1.

Keep going up by increments of 1 until you find a multiple that both numbers will go into. That's your answer!

Eg. highest LCM of 3 and 7

Select highest (or in this case higher number) which is 7 and run through the multiples starting at 1.

7 x 1 = 7. Does 3 go into 7? No. Next step

7 x 2 = 14. Does 3 go into 14? No. Next step.

7 x 3 =21. Does 3 into 21? Yes

21 is the LCM of 3 and 7.

LCM is the lowest common denominator.

This is when you have 2 numbers and you need to find the lowest number that is a multiple of both of those numbers.

For example, with the numbers 35 and 42, the lowest common denominator is 7. That is because this is the lowest number that BOTH 35 and 42 can be divided by to achieve a whole number.

You may think the LCM is 1, as any number can be divided by 1 to get a whole number, but 1 doesn't count as an LCM.

Lowest common multiple shared within a set of numbers for example, the lowest common multiple of 6 and 3 is 6. This is because 6 is within both the 3 and 6 times tables.

Least common multiple

LCM stands for Least Common Multiple. It's the smallest multiple that two or more numbers have in common. For example, the LCM of 4 and 6 is 12 because it's the smallest number that both 4 and 6 can divide evenly into.

Hi Iftikhar, the LCM often stands for the Lowest Common Multiple. If you have two (or more) numbers, we'll call them X and Y , the LCM is the smallest number that is also a multiple of X and a multiple of Y.

LCM is least common factor

Lowest common multiple, numbers are shared between 2 or more numbers eg. the lowest common multiple of 2 and 4 is 4

LCM is least common multiple .for example LCM of 5 and 15 is 15 . If you observe the common multiples of 5 and 15 , there are 15, 30 , 45 and so on

It is simply the smallest of the common multiples.

For Example, what is LCM of 3 and 5?

The multiples of 3 are 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, ...

The multiples of 5 are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, ...

Find the first Common (same) value which is 15

So the Least Common Multiple of 3 and 5 is 15