In One Week, 5/8 of your mail is advertisements and 1/5 is letters from friends. What is the least number of pieces of mail you receive?

Question

I Need Help Please Can You Give Me The Answer To This Question! I Think The Answer Is A Fraction. I Have No Clue Please I Need The Answer

Answer 1

You can't receive a fractional piece of mail, right? So whatever the number is letters is, it's an integer. We need to find the smallest integer such that 5/8 and 1/5 of this integer are also integers (you won't get a fractional amount of advertisements or fractional letters from friends). To solve this, we need to find the LCM (least common multiple) if 5 and 8. This is 40. To check, multiply 40 and 5/8: You get 25 pieces of mail (not a fraction!) Now, multiply 40 and 1/5: 8 pieces of mail.

Answer 2

This question hinges on the fact that you will get a whole number of advertisements and a whole number of letters from friends.  Thus, your total number of letters must be divisible by 8 and 5.  Your teacher probably wants the least common multiple of 8 and 5, which is 40.

 

However, the way this question is worded the answer is actually 0.

Answer 3

The amount of mail must be a common multiple to both 8 and 5.

The LCM (least common multiple) is 40.

 

(5/8)40 = 25, advertisements

(1/5)40 = 8, letters