Calculating Least Common Multiple

Introduction

In mathematics, the least common multiple (LCM) is the smallest positive integer that is divisible by two or more numbers without leaving any remainder. For example, the LCM of 4 and 6 is 12, because 12 is the smallest number that is divisible by both 4 and 6.

Skills Graph

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Least Common Multiple

Write a function lcm(numbers) that takes a list of numbers as an argument and returns their least common multiple. Your function should use the following formula to calculate the LCM of two numbers x and y: lcm(x, y) = x * y / gcd(x, y), where gcd(x, y) is the greatest common divisor of x and y.

To solve this problem, you can use the functools.reduce() function to apply the lcm() formula to all the numbers in the list. You can also use the math.gcd() function to calculate the greatest common divisor of two numbers.

from functools import reduce from math import gcd def lcm(numbers): return reduce((lambda x, y: int(x * y / gcd(x, y))), numbers)

lcm([12, 7]) ## 84 lcm([1, 3, 4, 5]) ## 60

Calculating Least Common Multiple

Introduction

Skills Graph

Least Common Multiple

Summary

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