Question

An architect is designing a house in which a 104 square foot room and a 130 square foot room share a wall what is the greatest possible integer length of the shared wall -- THIS QUESTION WAS ASKED AND ANSWERED. BUT ANSWERED INCORRECTLY. NOTE THE ANSWER GIVEN CHANGED THE DIMENSIONS TO 140 FROM 104. AND THIS WEBSITE WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO REPORT THAT.

Answer 1

Both rooms share a common side whose dimension is unknown. Call it x.

Then, the area of both squares have x as common factor.

So, x is the greatest common factor of 104 and 130.

You should know how to calculate the greatest common factor of two integers.

Just find the prime factors and choose the common factors raised to the lowest exponent.

104 = (2^3) (13)

130 = (2) (5)(13)

=> the greatest common factor is 2 * 13 = 26, and that is the greatest possible integer length of the shared wall.

Answer: 26