Micah found the least common multiple of 8 and 12. His work is shown below.

Multiples of 8: 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, . . .
Multiples of 12: 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, . . .

The least common multiple is 12.

What is Micah’s error?
Micah listed some values that were not multiples.
Micah listed factors of each number instead of multiples.
Micah should have multiplied 8 and 12 to find the least common multiple.
Micah selected a multiple that is not the least of the common multiples.

1 answer

Micah’s error is that he selected a multiple that is not the least of the common multiples.

The least common multiple (LCM) of 8 and 12 is actually 24, not 12. Micah correctly listed the multiples but incorrectly identified 12 as the least common multiple when it is only a multiple of 12 and not a common multiple of both. The smallest common multiple of both 8 and 12 is indeed 24, which is the first number that appears in both lists.