Tiling and Cutting Using LCM and HCF

The dimensions of a large tile are \(108\) cm by \(48\) cm.

1. If such identical tiles are used to lay a large floor area of a square unit, what is the least number of tiles required?
2. If one such tile can be cut into smaller squares equally without any wastage, what is the longest length of each side of the smaller square?

For part (a), lay the uncut tiles in aligned rows, all in the same orientation, with no gaps or overlaps.