Question

A grocery store clerk has 16 oranges,20 apples,and 24 pears. The clerk needs to put an equal number of apples,oranges,and pears into each basket. What is the greatest number of baskets that can be made so that no fruit is left?

Answer 1

We must find the GCF of 16, 20, and 24.  If we use this number of baskets, we can evenly divide each fruit into the baskets, but anything more will require a fractional amount of fruit.

The GCF of these numbers is four, because if each is divided by 4, we get 4, 5, and 8, which share no common factors other than one.  Thus, four baskets at most can be made.