If the brown rods (8 units) and the orange rods (10 units) are each used to form the shortest possible one-color train of matching length, how many brown rods and how many orange rods will be required?

What information about common factors or common multiples does this provide?

1 answer

To find the shortest possible one-color train of matching length using the brown rods and orange rods, we need to find the least common multiple (LCM) of 8 and 10.

The multiples of 8 are: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, ...

The multiples of 10 are: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, ...

The least common multiple of 8 and 10 is 40.

Therefore, to form the shortest possible one-color train of matching length, we would need 5 brown rods (8 x 5 = 40 units) and 4 orange rods (10 x 4 = 40 units).

This provides information about the common multiple of 8 and 10, which is 40. It also indicates that the greatest common factor of these two numbers is 2, as both numbers are even and divisible by 2.