NoCommonFactor Parameters

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NoCommonFactor parameters allow you to access numbers which do not share a common factor. There are two ways of using this parameter type.

 

$p=nocommonfactor(number)

 

This will return a number less than "number" which shares no common factors.

 

Example:

 

$p=nocommonfactor(12)                $p will be chosen from the set {1,5,7,11}.

 

More commonly, you will set a low and high value for the returning number.

 

$p=nocommonfactor(number,low,high)

 

Notes:

•low and high are optional and do NOT need to be factors of the number.
•low and high can be higher (or lower) than number
•The nocommonfactor command will return 1.

 

Example:

 

$p=nocommonfactor(12,10,36)        $p will be chosen from the set {11,13,17,19,23,25,29,31,35}.

 

The most common reason for using a nocommonfactor parameter is to create numerators for fractions which cannot be simplified. For example, if you use $p=nocommonfactor(12) then the fraction $p/12 will NEVER be able to be simplified (it will be 1/12, 5/12, 7/12 or 11/12.)