Sunday, 2 November 2025

Exercise (2.4).5

(i) Find [3, 4, 28].

(ii) Solve the following equation 

$$ \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{28} + x = 1 $$

without using a calculator.


(i) The prime decompositions are as follows.

$3 = 3^1$

$4 = 2^2$

$28 = 2^2 \times 7^1$

And so the LCM $[3,4,28] = 2^2 \times 3^1 \times 7^1 = 84$


(ii) The fractions rewritten using the LCM as the denominator, gives

$$ \frac{28}{84} + \frac{21}{84} + \frac{3}{28} + x = 1 $$

That is,

$$ x = \frac{84}{84} - \frac{52}{84} = \frac{32}{84} = \frac{8}{21}$$