how do i enable negative results in the lcm function?

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Cyberscryed - 24 Jul 2006 07:09 GMT

Please i need to know how to enable these negative values from teh lcm
function because all i get is 0 and its obvious that its not

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Dav - 24 Jul 2006 08:36 GMT

As I understand it it is not designed to work with negative numbers, as
if you put in 2 -3 -6 12 would the answer be 12 or 36 or ?

Regards

Dav

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Dav

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Cyberscryed - 24 Jul 2006 12:06 GMT

maybe i should be alot clearer in my question alot more clearer its like this
ive got a bunch of values that are really really really small and i need to
find there lcm i know what the lcm is but i have to actually calculate it the
numbers arent whole but decimals and so oon i need the lcm function to give
me a negative single (decimal number) not a integer hope that helps

> As I understand it it is not designed to work with negative numbers, as
> if you put in 2 -3 -6 12 would the answer be 12 or 36 or ?
>
> Regards
>
> Dav

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pouch - 24 Jul 2006 12:27 GMT

purely from a mathematical point of view you cannot have a negative lc
as there will always be a lower multiple. For example if you did manag
to obtain a lcm of -30 then -27000 (-30x-30x-30) making this a new lc
and this process can be repeated infinitel

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Cyberscryed - 24 Jul 2006 13:18 GMT

yes great input there made me relook at what i was doing and i didnt need a
negative number i needed a decimal value for my result for example i need a
number like 1.654634353534E-19 ro occur as my lcm any ideas

> purely from a mathematical point of view you cannot have a negative lcm
> as there will always be a lower multiple. For example if you did manage
> to obtain a lcm of -30 then -27000 (-30x-30x-30) making this a new lcm
> and this process can be repeated infinitely

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N Harkawat - 24 Jul 2006 10:22 GMT

How about
lcm(abs(a1:a100)) array entered (ctrl + shift + enter)

> Please i need to know how to enable these negative values from teh lcm
> function because all i get is 0 and its obvious that its not

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Cyberscryed - 24 Jul 2006 13:03 GMT

o k i have found out that it is not a negative number tahtr im looking for in
the lcm but im actually looking for a decimal number for the lcm outcome can
anyone help ?

> How about
> lcm(abs(a1:a100)) array entered (ctrl + shift + enter)
>
> > Please i need to know how to enable these negative values from teh lcm
> > function because all i get is 0 and its obvious that its not

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Dav - 24 Jul 2006 13:17 GMT

By definitions the LCM is an interger so will not work on decimal
fractions

You need to multiply all of your values by a larger number to make them
all intergers thendo LCM then divide the result back down to your
decimal form.

But I should say the same logic as for negative numbers applies eg the
LCM of 0.5 is not 0.5 as 0.5*0.5=0.25 etc so your only hope is to try
and turn everything into integers and there could be problems there

Regards

Dav

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Dav

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