Question

Los makes baskets with bags of coffee or boxes of tea. He has 72 bags of coffee and 56 boxes of tea. He wants to put an equal number of bags of coffee or boxes of tea in each basket, using all the coffee and tea. Each basket contains only coffee or tea. What is the largest number of baskets that he can make?

Answer 1

Los can make a total of 16 baskets by finding the greatest common divisor of 72 and 56, which is 8, resulting in 9 baskets of coffee and 7 baskets of tea.

Step-by-step explanation:

To answer the question: 'What is the largest number of baskets that Los can make with 72 bags of coffee and 56 boxes of tea, putting an equal number of bags or boxes in each basket, using all the coffee and tea, with each basket containing only coffee or tea?' We need to find the greatest common divisor (GCD) of 72 and 56, as this will determine the largest equal number of items that can be divided into baskets.

First, list the factors of 72 and 56:

• Factors of 72: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 72
• Factors of 56: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 14, 28, 56

Then, find the largest factor that both numbers share, which is 8. Therefore, Los can divide the bags of coffee and boxes of tea into 8-item baskets, leading to 9 baskets of coffee (72 ÷ 8) and 7 baskets of tea (56 ÷ 8).

In total, Los can make 16 baskets, with 9 containing coffee and 7 containing tea.