Question

Brian's Orchard supplies apples to markets in Albany. The apples can be packed into a large bag that holds 9 apples or a small bag that holds 6 apples. The orchard needs to fill an order for 156 apples using both large and small bags. What is the least number of each type of bag that could be used if each bag is completely filled? Show your work.

Answer 1

for the least number of bags in general, the answer would be 16 bags of 9 and two bags of 6

Answer 2

The question asks for the least number of each bags to be filled for filling a total of 156 apples.

Now one thing is clear that of we fill 6 apples bag first , then the number of bags will not be the least , it will increase because firstly we are filling the bag which can hold less number of apples,

So first we start filling the 9 bag apples

Now we know that

16* 9 = 144 and

17 * 9 = 153

If we fill 17 large bags , we are left with 3 apples , while the question says we have to fill the bags completely

It means we can stop at 16 large bags

and then we will be left with 156 - 144 = 12 apples

which can completely fit in 2 small bags

So answer is 16 large bags and 2 small bags