Word problem help

Question

Kyle is making flower arrangements for a wedding. He has 16 roses and 60 carnations. Each arrangement will have the same number of flowers, but roses and carnations will not appear in the same arrangements. If he puts the greatest possible number of flowers in each arrangement, how many arrangements can he make?

Answer 1

Hello Katey,

 

First you much determine the largest common factor of 16 and 60, which is 4.  This means that 4 can be divided evenly into both 16 and 60 and that 4 is the maximum number of flowers for each arrangement.  

 

Next you divide 16 by 4 to get the total number of arrangements of roses (16/4= 4 arrangements), and

divide 60 by 4 to get the total number of arrangements of carnations (60/4= 15 arrangements).

 

This means that Kyle can make a total of 19 arrangements (4+15=19).

 

I hope this helps!

Cheryl OMalley