Samantha has two pieces of cloth. One piece is 72 inches long, and the other piece is 90 inches long. She wants to cut both pieces into strips of equal length that are as long as possible. How long should she cut the strips?

She should cut it 72inches long couse that's as long as it get sorry if I spell wroug but I'm better at math than spelling

Answered by audriestice | 2024-06-10

So this question is basically asking for the highest common factor of 72 and 90. You can work this out by looking at the prime factors of these numbers. For 72, the prime factors are 2 ∗ 2 ∗ 2 ∗ 3 ∗ 3 or 2 3 ∗ 3 2 For 90, the prime factors ar 2 ∗ 3 ∗ 3 ∗ 5 or 2 ∗ 3 2 ∗ 5 We are interested in the prime factors which are repeated. In this case, that's 2 ∗ 3 ∗ 3 or 2 ∗ 3 2 2 ∗ 3 2 = 2 ∗ 9 = 18 so the highest common factor, and so the longest strips which could be cut from both 72 inches and 90 inches, is 18 inches. I hope that helped.

Answered by pbc147 | 2024-06-10

Samantha should cut the strips into lengths of 18 inches, which is the greatest common divisor of the lengths 72 inches and 90 inches. This allows her to get the longest strips possible from both pieces of cloth. By doing so, she can ensure all strips are of equal length.
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Answered by audriestice | 2024-11-01