Paragon Private and International School

Discovery Mathematics Form 1

Tai Thien Siong
3 – Application of LCM and HCF

Name: _____________________________________________ Date: ________________

Example:

The light on three lightships flash at regular intervals. The first light flashes every 18 seconds, the second every
30 seconds and the third every 40 seconds. The three flash together at 10.00 p.m. At what time will they next
flash together?[Begin with small numbers – LCM]

Solution:

LCM of 18, 30 and 40 = 23 x 32 x5 = 360

360 seconds = 6 minutes

∴ The three lights will next flash together at 10.06 p.m.

Exercise:

1. Huixian wish to cut some squares from a rectangular sheet of A4 paper with a length of 126 cm and a
breadth of 84 cm. She wants to cut s the A4 paper evenly into small squares and does not want any
leftover.
(i) What is the length of each square?
(ii) How many squares can she cut altogether?
[Begin with large numbers – HCF]

2. Participants from China, Japan and Korea will be attending a conference. 96 of them are from China, 72
are from Japan and 48 are from Korea. He organiser wishes to group them into discussion groups such
that the participants are distributed among the froups. The number of discussion topics that the
organiser needs to prepare depends on the number of groups formed.
(i) What is the greatest number of discussion topics that the organiser has to prepare for the
conference?
(ii) How many China participants are in each discussion group?
[Begin with large numbers – HCF]
3. Canteen A, canteen B and canteen C repeat their menus 12 days, 8 days and 10 days respectively. All
three canteens serve noodle soup today. How many days later will all the canteens serving noodle
soup again?[Begin with small numbers – LCM]

4. Jun Wei has a paper box with a length of 8 m, a breadth of 12 m and a height of 16 m.
(a) He is thinking of packing small cubes into the box. If each small cube is of length 2 m, what is the
number of small cubes that he is able to pack into the box?
[Normal problem involving volume]
(b) On the other hand, Jun Wei wants to pack cubes of larger size into the box. Find the greatest
possible length of the such that the cubes can fill the box entirely.
[Begin with large number – HCF]

5. Lixin has three ribbons of length 160 cm, 192 cm and 240 cm respectively. She wishes to cut all the
ribbons into equal number of pieces without any leftover. Find
(i) The largest possible length of each piece of ribbon.
(ii) The total number of pieces of ribbon that Lixn has cut?
[Begin with larger number - HCF]