At a concert, the band has 8 men's T-shirts and 18 women's T-shirts. The band wants to set up tables to sell the shirts.

Question

At a concert, the band has 8 men's T-shirts and 18 women's T-shirts. The band wants to set up tables to sell the shirts, with an equal number of men's and women's shirts available at each table and no shirts left over. What is the greatest number of tables the band can sell shirts from?

Answer 1

The total number of tables must be a common factor for both numbers 8 and 18 (because there are no leftovers) and be the largest number.

 

Based on that, the possibilities are: 

 

1 Table: This is possible because you could have 8 mens and 18 womens Tshirts at the table. 

 

2 Tables  This is  possible because you could have 4 mens and 9 womens Tshirts at each table. Since this is greater than 1, then the answer cannot be 1.

 

There are no other factors in common for 8 and 18.

 

Therefore, the greatest number of tables is 2.