A wholesaler sells bottles of refined oil in boxes which contain eithe...
Minimum number of bottles to have a choice of buying in either type of boxes
To have a choice of buying refined oil bottles in either type of boxes, the minimum number of bottles the retailer should buy is the least common multiple (LCM) of 64 and 144.
Calculating the LCM of 64 and 144
To calculate the LCM of 64 and 144, we can use the prime factorization method.
- Prime factorization of 64: 2^6
- Prime factorization of 144: 2^4 x 3^2
To find the LCM, we take the highest power of each prime factor that appears in either number.
LCM = 2^6 x 3^2 = 576
Therefore, the retailer should buy at least 576 bottles of refined oil to have a choice of buying them in either type of boxes.
Number of boxes of each kind the retailer can purchase
Now that we know the minimum number of bottles to buy, we can calculate the number of boxes of each kind the retailer can purchase.
- Number of boxes of 64 bottles: 576/64 = 9 boxes
- Number of boxes of 144 bottles: 576/144 = 4 boxes
Therefore, the retailer can purchase 9 boxes of 64 bottles and 4 boxes of 144 bottles.
It's important to note that the retailer can also purchase any combination of boxes that adds up to 576 bottles, as long as they have at least one box of each kind. For example, they could purchase 6 boxes of 64 bottles and 2 boxes of 144 bottles.