Over the next two days, Greene Employment Agency is interviewing clients who wish to find jobs. On the first day, the agency plans to interview clients in groups of 4. On the second day, the agency will interview clients in groups of 8. If the employment agency will interview the same number of clients on each day, what is the smallest number of clients that could be interviewed each day?

1 answer

Let \( x \) be the number of clients interviewed each day. On the first day, clients are interviewed in groups of 4, which implies that \( x \) must be divisible by 4:

\[ x \equiv 0 \mod 4 \]

On the second day, clients are interviewed in groups of 8, meaning \( x \) must also be divisible by 8:

\[ x \equiv 0 \mod 8 \]

To satisfy both conditions, \( x \) must be a common multiple of 4 and 8. The least common multiple (LCM) of 4 and 8 can be calculated as follows:

First, we find the prime factorizations:

  • \( 4 = 2^2 \)
  • \( 8 = 2^3 \)

The LCM is determined by taking the highest power of each prime factor present in the factorizations. Here, the only prime is \( 2 \):

\[ \text{LCM}(4, 8) = 2^3 = 8 \]

Thus, the smallest number of clients that could be interviewed each day is:

\[ \boxed{8} \]

To confirm, we check that 8 is divisible by both 4 and 8:

  • \( 8 \div 4 = 2 \) (which is an integer)
  • \( 8 \div 8 = 1 \) (which is also an integer)

Therefore, the solution is valid, and the minimum number of clients interviewed each day is indeed \( \boxed{8} \).