How To Find Least Common Multiple Of Two Numbers In Python

Finding the LCM (Least Common Multiple) of two numbers is a common mathematical problem that arises in many fields of study.

In programming, we often need to find the LCM of two numbers in order to perform certain operations or computations. Python, with its built-in functions and libraries, makes it easy to find the LCM of two numbers.

Steps:

Step 1: Define the two numbers

The first step is to define the two numbers for which we want to find the LCM. For example, let’s say we want to find the LCM of 12 and 18.

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x = 12
y = 18

Step 2: Find the maximum number

Next, we need to find the maximum number between the two numbers. We will use the built-in max() function for this.

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max_num = max(x, y)

Step 3: Find the LCM

Now that we have the maximum number, we can start finding the LCM. We will use a while loop to check if the maximum number is divisible by both x and y. If it is not, we will increment the maximum number by 1 and check again. We will continue this until we find a number that is divisible by both x and y. This number will be the LCM.

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while True:
    if max_num % x == 0 and max_num % y == 0:
        lcm = max_num
        break
    max_num += 1

Step 4: Print the result

Finally, we can print the LCM using the built-in print() function.

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print("The LCM of", x, "and", y, "is", lcm)

Full Code:

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x = 12
y = 18
 
max_num = max(x, y)
 
while True:
    if max_num % x == 0 and max_num % y == 0:
        lcm = max_num
        break
    max_num += 1
 
print("The LCM of", x, "and", y, "is", lcm)

Conclusion:

In this tutorial, we have learned how to find the LCM of two numbers in Python. We used built-in functions and a while loop to accomplish this task. By following these simple steps, we can easily find the LCM of any two numbers in Python.