Question

Dee divided her collection of 52 bears into equal groups and had 1 left over. How many groups did she make? How many bears are in each group?

Answer 1

3 groups of 17, or 7-17 groups of 3

Explanation:

52 - 1 = 51

3(17) = 51

Answer 2

Dee divided her bears into 3 groups of 17 bears, OR 17 groups of 3 bears

Explanation:

If Dee had 1 bear left over after she divided her collection, then the number of bears in the groups = 52 - 1 = 51

To find the groups, we need to find the factors of 51.

(a factor is a number that divides another number evenly, with no remainder)

As 51 is an odd number, we can say that all multiples of 2 (even numbers) cannot be a factor.

Factors of 51:

1 and 51

3 and 17

We are told that Dee divided her collection into equal groups (not one group), so we can discard 1 and 51. Therefore, Dee divided her bears into 3 groups of 17 bears, OR 17 groups of 3 bears (both solutions are correct)