SOLUTION: Suppose you have 72 blue marbles and 108 green marbles to sell. You decide to separate them into packages of the same size, each containing all blue or all green marbles .What is t

Algebra ->  Test -> SOLUTION: Suppose you have 72 blue marbles and 108 green marbles to sell. You decide to separate them into packages of the same size, each containing all blue or all green marbles .What is t      Log On


   

Question 761099: Suppose you have 72 blue marbles and 108 green marbles to sell. You decide to separate them into packages of the same size, each containing all blue or all green marbles .What is the greatest number of marbles you can put in each package?
Answer by ramkikk66(644) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The maximum number of marbles in a single package, for the give distribution, is nothing but the HCF (Highest Common Factor) of 72 and 108.
(It has to be a factor of both 72 and 108 for you to exactly distribute the total number of marbles. Since we are looking for the "greatest number" of marbles, it has to be the Highest Common Factor)
HCF of 72 and 108 (which you can compute through many methods) is 36.
So the max number of marbles that can go into a package is 36.
You will distribute the 72 blue marbles into 2 packages, and the 108 green marbles into 3 packages. Total of 5 packages.
:)