Question

A merchant can place 8 large boxes or 10 small boxes into a carton for shipping. In one shipment, he sent a total of 96 boxes. If there are more large boxes than small boxes, how many cartons did he ship?

Answer 1

To figure this out, you should think about the multiples of 10 boxes you could have.

If I had 10 small boxes, there would need to be 86 large boxes. 86 is not evenly divisible by 8 so that doesn't work.

If I had 20 small boxes, there would be 76 large boxes. 76 is not evenly divisible by 8.

If I had 30 small boxes, there would be 66 large boxes. 66 is not evenly divisible by 8.

If I had 40 small boxes, there would be 56 large boxes. 56 is every divisible by 8.

4 cartons of 10 small boxes and 7 cartons of 8 large boxes would be needed. This is a total of 11 cartons.