Problema Solution
mary has 120 gold coins and 144 silver coins. What is the the greatest number of coins that he can place in each stack, so there are the same number of coins
Answer provided by our tutors
lets
s = the number of sacks of silver coins
g = the number of sacks of gold coins
x = the number of coins in each sack
s,g and x are non-negative integers
s*x = 144
g*x = 120
we need the greatest number x that divides 144 and 120 that is greatest common factor of 144 and 120 or x = GCM(120, 144)
Since
120 = 2*2*2*3*5
144 = 2*2*2*2*3*3
GCM(120, 144) = 2*2*2*3
GCM(120, 144) = 24
the greatest number of coins he can place in each sack is 24.