LCM

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The least common multiple (LCM or lcm) of one or more nonzero integers is the smallest positive integer that is a multiple of all those numbers. For example, the LCM of 12 and 14 is 84; no smaller multiple of 12 is also divisible by 14, nor is any smaller multiple of 14 also divisible by 12.

GCD and LCM in terms of the prime factorization

From the prime factorization of $m_i,1\le i\le n,$

$m_i=\prod _{j=1}^{\pi (\max (m_1,\dots ,m_n))}{p_j}^{{\alpha }_j(i)},1\le i\le n,$

where $\pi (m)$ is the number of primes up to $m$, and $p_j$ is the $j$^th prime number, we have

$\gcd (m_1,\dots ,m_n)=\prod _{j=1}^{\pi (\max (m_1,\dots ,m_n))}{p_j}^{\min ({\alpha }_j(1),\dots ,{\alpha }_j(n))}$

and

$\mathrm{l}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}(m_1,\dots ,m_n)=\prod _{j=1}^{\pi (\max (m_1,\dots ,m_n))}{p_j}^{\max ({\alpha }_j(1),\dots ,{\alpha }_j(n))}$

Formulae

Formulae relating LCM to GCD

Since

$m+n=\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}(m,n)+\mathrm{m}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}(m,n),m\le n,$

then the least common multiple (LCM) of two nonzero integers $m$ and $n$ is related to their greatest common divisor (GCD) by

$|mn|=\mathrm{l}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}(m,n)\cdot \gcd (m,n),mn\ne 0,$

where the GCD may be obtained via the Euclidean algorithm.

The above formula results from the fact that $\gcd (m,n)$ corresponds to multiset intersection of the two multisets (bags) of prime factors (with multiplicity), while $\mathrm{l}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}(m,n)$ corresponds to multiset union (which amounts to multiset addition, here performed multiplicatively as $mn$, minus bag intersection, here performed multiplicatively via division by $\gcd (m,n)$) of the two bags of prime factors (with multiplicity).

Since (using the inclusion-exclusion principle)

$m_1+m_2+m_3=\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}(m_1,m_2,m_3)+\left\{\right[\min (m_1,m_2)+\min (m_1,m_3)+\min (m_2,m_3)]-\mathrm{m}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}(m_1,m_2,m_3)\},m_1\le m_2\le m_3,$

we then have

$|m_1{m}_2{m}_3|=\mathrm{l}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}(m_1,m_2,m_3)\cdot \left\{\frac{\gcd (m_1,m_2)\gcd (m_1,m_3)\gcd (m_2,m_3)}{\gcd (m_1,m_2,m_3)}\right\},m_1{m}_2{m}_3\ne 0.$

Finally, since (using the inclusion-exclusion principle)

$\sum _{i=1}^n{m}_i=\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}(m_1,\dots ,m_n)+\{[\sum _{i<j}\min (m_i,m_j)]-[\sum _{i<j<k}\min (m_i,m_j,m_k)]+\cdots +(-1{)}^n\mathrm{m}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}(m_1,\dots ,m_n)\},m_1\le \cdots \le m_n,$

we then have

$\left|\prod _{i=1}^n{m}_i\right|=\mathrm{l}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}(m_1,\dots ,m_n)\cdot \{[\prod _{i<j}\gcd (m_i,m_j)]\cdot {[\prod _{i<j<k}\gcd (m_i,m_j,m_k)]}^{-1}\cdot \dots \cdot [\gcd (m_1,\cdots ,m_n){]}^{(-1{)}^n}\},\prod _{i=1}^n{m}_i\ne 0.$

Examples

• {{lcm|1}} = 1
• {{lcm|144}} = 144
• {{lcm|1|144}} = 144
• {{lcm|144|2988}} = 11952
• {{lcm|2988|37116}} = 3080628
• {{lcm|25|625}} = 625
• {{lcm|544|119}} = 3808

Sequences

A003418 a(0) = 1; for n ≥ 1, a(n) = least common multiple (or lcm) of {1, 2, ..., n}.

{1, 1, 2, 6, 12, 60, 60, 420, 840, 2520, 2520, 27720, 27720, 360360, 360360, 360360, 720720, 12252240, 12252240, 232792560, 232792560, 232792560, 232792560, 5354228880, ...}

A014963 Exponential of Mangoldt function M(n): a(n) = 1 unless n is a prime or prime power when a(n) = that prime. (A003418(n) / A003418(n-1), n ≥ 1.)

{1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 1, 7, 2, 3, 1, 11, 1, 13, 1, 1, 2, 17, 1, 19, 1, 1, 1, 23, 1, 5, 1, 3, 1, 29, 1, 31, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 37, 1, 1, 1, 41, 1, 43, 1, 1, 1, 47, 1, 7, 1, 1, 1, 53, 1, ...}

A002944 LCM{1, 2, ..., n} / n, n ≥ 1.

{1, 1, 2, 3, 12, 10, 60, 105, 280, 252, 2520, 2310, 27720, 25740, 24024, 45045, 720720, 680680, 12252240, 11639628, 11085360, 10581480, 232792560, 223092870, 1070845776, ...}

A099946 LCM{1, 2, ..., n} / (n*(n-1)), n ≥ 2.

{1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 10, 15, 35, 28, 252, 210, 2310, 1980, 1716, 3003, 45045, 40040, 680680, 612612, 554268, 503880, 10581480, 9699690, 44618574, 41186376, 114406600, ...}

A025527 a(n) = n! / LCM{1,2,...,n} = (n-1)! / LCM{C(n-1,0), C(n-1,1), ..., C(n-1,n-1)}.

{1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 12, 12, 48, 144, 1440, 1440, 17280, 17280, 241920, 3628800, 29030400, 29030400, 522547200, 522547200, 10450944000, 219469824000, 4828336128000, ...}

See also

• Greatest common divisor (GCD or gcd) and Euclidean algorithm
  • {{gcd}} mathematical function template

• Least common multiple (LCM or lcm)
  • {{lcm}} mathematical function template

• LCM numeral system