AS I see it, LCM is defined in terms of GCD: "The least common multiple is the product divided by the GCD."
One definition I found for GCD is this: In mathematics, the greatest common divisor (gcd), also known as the greatest common denominator, greatest common factor (gcf), or highest common factor (hcf), of two or more non-zero integers, is the largest positive integer that divides the numbers without a remainder. If GCD is always positive, given the definition of LCM, it looks like LCM will always be negative for augments with opposite signs. On 3/31/2011 8:58, Raul Miller wrote: > When I look up "least common multiple", I get definitions for its > result like "the smallest positive integer which is a multiple of both > numbers". > > Of course, that is bogus when one of the numbers is zero, and I am > still looking for a good definition. > > But when one of the arguments to *. is negative, and the other is > positive, I get a negative result instead of a positive result... I > think that this comes from using a definition of *%+. but is it > correct? > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
