There are two questions where I am having difficulty to solve. One of the question asks us the calculate the minimum number of square tiles required to cover a floor of dimension 247 ft x 209 ft. The particularly confusing part arises when we are not familiar with the intuition behind the calculation. Why would I really need to have square tiles to calculate a GCD is yet unknown to me here. Secondly, in another problem where we are required to find the number of wires of 22cm required to reach a length of 1m so that there is not wire that is left over also demands the usage of GCD. I am yet unfamiliar with how to solve these problems. Why GCD is being used particularly is unknown.
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1The side length $d$ of the tile must exactly divide both $247$ and $209$ for an exact fit. But $,d\mid a,b\iff d\mid \gcd(a,b)\ $ by the gcd universal property. Such tiling problems are one of the common geometrical motivations of the gcd. – Bill Dubuque Dec 12 '21 at 15:04
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Yes but why is it the minimum number of tiles here? – Black Panther Dec 12 '21 at 15:18
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@BillDubuque What about the next problem? Secondly, can you explain it more analytically that mathematics. Can you write a better answer? – Black Panther Dec 12 '21 at 15:23
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1If you decrease the tile size then you need more tiles. The second problem seems to be incorrectly stated. Please check it. It's not clear what you mean by "more analytically...". – Bill Dubuque Dec 12 '21 at 15:26