Consider also that 2 negatives give a positive, too. And the following result is interesting, though likely irrelevant.
2r3 *. 3r4 6 On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 9:19 AM, David Mitchell <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > -- (B=) <-----my sig Brian Schott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
