High School

Janice and Jasmine were each given a piece of ribbon of equal length. Janice cuts her ribbon into equal lengths of 12 cm, while Jasmine cuts her ribbon into equal lengths of 18 cm. If there was no remainder in both cases, find the shortest possible length of ribbon given to them.

Answer :

Final answer:

The shortest possible length of ribbon given to Janice and Jasmine is 108 cm.

Explanation:

To find the shortest possible length of ribbon given to Janice and Jasmine, we need to find the least common multiple (LCM) of 12 cm and 18 cm. The LCM is the smallest multiple that both lengths can divide into evenly without a remainder.

The prime factorization of 12 is 2^2 * 3 and the prime factorization of 18 is 2 * 3^2. To find the LCM, we take the highest power of each prime factor: 2^2 * 3^2 = 12 * 9 = 108 cm.

Therefore, the shortest possible length of ribbon given to Janice and Jasmine is 108 cm.

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