it refers, whether you like it or not,
to the least common multiple,
not divisor, of the denominators in question.

the fact that you’ve somehow become confused
about this point illustrates my point:
“LCD” clashes with the much more useful
“LCM” and “GCD”; we who toil in the field
have reason to wish it would go away.

as to typesetting.
the “preview” is a misfeature.
and not only because it shows
extra blank lines at random.
(i tried to get around this
by using BR tags … which
worked in the preview but not
in the actual type as it appeared
in the comment itself.)
nothing to do with choice of browser.

the list of supported HTML,
on the other hand, is a good thing
(and could have saved me some trouble
if i’d taken it seriously).

ideally, one would say “least common multiple”when referring to this concept

I disagree: I see more of an analogy between “2 goes into X” and “this movie will appeal to moviegoer X”. But of course, it’s an analogy, so I guess we can all have our own interpretations.

”divisor” in this context is essentiallythe opposite of “denominator”(since the denominator is chosenby considering multiples, not factors).

Sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re saying here.

god damn it.
this looks nothing like the “preview”.

Funny, it usually works for me. Maybe the preview widget doesn’t like IE or something. <shrug>

“lowest common denominator” is indeed
an unfortunate word choice. but not
as inconsistent as you appear to believe.
ideally, one would say “least common multiple”
when referring to this concept; this is
abbrivated, of course, as “LCM”
… not by the cursed acronym “LCD”
“least common denominator”).

the confusion arises because “GCD”
denotes “greatest common divisor“.
“divisor” in this context is essentially
the opposite of “denominator”
(since the denominator is chosen
by considering multiples, not factors).

you’re certainly right in pointing out
that the least common divisor
of two natural numbers is 1
(and that this isn’t very interesting).
and the terminology is somewhat flawed.
it just isn’t flawed in the way you’ve described …

Just curious, but where did you learn that part of arithmetic?

In western Switzerland. I seem to remember the phrases “plus grand commun dénominateur (PGCD)” and “plus petit commun multiple (PPCM)” cropping up in elementary school.

Just curious, but where did you learn that part of arithmetic?

I had similar thoughts about it being a strange turn of phrase, but I always just assumed that it was just ignorance of the mathematical meaning. Now that you point it out, it would have been kind of a clever ironic statement.