Question

Two wires are 16 m and 24 m long. The wires are to be cut into pieces of equal length. Find the maximum length (in m) of each piece.

• A. 4
• B. 16
• C. 6
• D. 8

Answer 1

The correct option is D 8

To find the maximum length of each piece, we need to find the highest common factor of 16 and 24.

16 = 1 $\times$ 16
16 = 2 $\times$ 8
16 = 4 $\times$ 4
Factors of 16 = 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16.

24 = 1 $\times$ 24
24 = 2 $\times$ 12
24 = 3 $\times$ 8
24 = 4 $\times$ 6
Factors of 16 = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24.

The highest common factor of 16 and 24 is 8.
So, the maximum length of each piece of wire can be 8 m.