A man has a certain number of small boxes to pack into parcels. If he packs 3, 4, 5 or 6 in a parcel, he is left with one; if he packs 7 in a parcel, none is left over. What is the number of boxes he may have to pack?
- A106
- B301
- C309
- D400
Solution & Step-by-step Explanation
Let the total number of boxes be .
According to the question, when is divided by 3, 4, 5, or 6, the remainder is 1.
Therefore, can be written in the form:
where is a positive integer.
First, let's find the LCM of 3, 4, 5, and 6:
So, the general form of the number is:
We are also given that when the boxes are packed in groups of 7, no boxes are left over. This means must be perfectly divisible by 7:
We can simplify :
Substitute this back into the equation:
Now, let's test integer values for :
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (which is perfectly divisible by 7)
Since satisfies the condition, we can find :
Thus, the number of boxes he may have to pack is 301.
According to the question, when is divided by 3, 4, 5, or 6, the remainder is 1.
Therefore, can be written in the form:
where is a positive integer.
First, let's find the LCM of 3, 4, 5, and 6:
So, the general form of the number is:
We are also given that when the boxes are packed in groups of 7, no boxes are left over. This means must be perfectly divisible by 7:
We can simplify :
Substitute this back into the equation:
Now, let's test integer values for :
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (not divisible by 7)
* For : (which is perfectly divisible by 7)
Since satisfies the condition, we can find :
Thus, the number of boxes he may have to pack is 301.