Word problem for elementary math

Question

Marcus is giving out bags of school supplies. Pencils come in packages of three. Pins come in packages of four. How many packages of pens and pencils what you need to put into each bag to have the same number of pens and pencils in each bag?

packages of pens?

packages of pencils?

Answer 1

Hi Jose!

When solving this problem, I was looking for the least common multiple, or the smallest number that can be divided by both 4 and 3. The least common multiple for 3 and 4 is 12. I started by multiplying 4 x 3=12. Next, I considered all the numbers smaller than 12 that are divisible by both 3 and 4. There aren't any.

If 12 is my least common multiple, I need to divide 12 by both 3 (number of pens in a package) and 4 (number of pencils in a package) to determine the number of packs for each school supply.

Number of packages of pencils--

12÷3= 4

So, I need 4 packages of pencils.

Number of packages of pens--

12÷4=3

So, I need 3 packages of pens.

You would need to put 3 packages of pencils and 4 packages of pens in a bag for their to be the same amount of each item. There will be 12 of each item.