Jodie bought some shirts for s6 each. Marge bought some shirts for $8 each. The girls spent the same amount of money on shirts. What is the least amount they could have spent?

1 Answer
Dec 17, 2016

The least amount of money they could have spent is $24.

Explanation:

You would solve this by finding the least common multiple (LCM) between 6 and 8.

One way to find LCM is by prime factorization. The prime factorization of 6 is #3*2# and the for 8 is #2*2*2#.

Then, you would pick the bigger number, which is this case is 8, so you would #2*2*2#. Then you need to look at the other number, which is 6, and its prime factorization is #3*2#.

In 8's prime factorization, you already have a two, so you need to bring the 3 from the prime factorization of 6 and add it to the prime factorization of 8.

Finally, in the end, you would have #2*2*2*3# which equals 24.
If you need more to the answer, Marge can buy 3 shirts because 24 divided by 8 is 3. Jodie can buy 4 shirts because 24 divided by 6 is 4.