Math Tutor Explains: What is the LCM of 8 and 131?

As your math tutor, I'm here to guide you through this problem! To find the LCM of 8 and 131, one effective method is comparing their prime factorizations. Start by breaking each number down into its prime factors. Follow these steps to determine the prime factorization of each number:

• What are the Factors of 8?
• What are the Factors of 131?

Here is the prime factorization of 8:

And this is the prime factorization of 131:

When you compare the prime factorization of these two numbers, you want to look for the highest power that each prime factor is raised to. In this case, there are these prime factors to consider: 2, 131

Through this we see that the LCM of 8 and 131 is 1048.

The first step to this method of finding the Least Common Multiple of 8 and 131 is to begin to list a few multiples for each number. If you need a refresher on how to find the multiples of these numbers, you can see the walkthroughs in the links below for each number.

Let’s take a look at the multiples for each of these numbers, 8 and 131:

What are the Multiples of 8?

What are the Multiples of 131?

Let’s take a look at the first 10 multiples for each of these numbers, 8 and 131:

First 10 Multiples of 8: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80

First 10 Multiples of 131: 131, 262, 393, 524, 655, 786, 917, 1048, 1179, 1310

You can continue to list out the multiples of these numbers as long as needed to find a match. Once you do find a match, or several matches, the smallest of these matches would be the Least Common Multiple. For instance, the first matching multiple(s) of 8 and 131 are 1048, 2096, 3144. Because 1048 is the smallest, it is the least common multiple.

The LCM of 8 and 131 is 1048.

Want more practice? As a math tutor, I encourage you to try some of these other LCM problems:

• What is the LCM of 122 and 90?
• What is the LCM of 54 and 23?
• What is the LCM of 119 and 79?
• What is the LCM of 40 and 7?
• What is the LCM of 61 and 20?