Question P4–P5–P6 Factors and multiples
Today’s problem — free all day, every step. Every day has one.
Mrs Wong wanted to divide 72 girls and 60 boys equally into as many teams as possible, with every team having the same number of girls and the same number of boys. How many boys were in each team?
Answer
5 boys in each team
The answer comes from how the numbers divide, not from a bar model.
In this one. If every team must get an equal whole share of both groups, the number of teams has to divide both numbers — so "as many teams as possible" is asking for the HCF.
Words like 'as many teams as possible', 'equally divided with none left over', or 'has exactly this many factors' appear, without any ratio or fraction in sight.
Children reach for the lowest common multiple when the question needs the highest common factor, or try to list every factor of a number by hand instead of building it from its prime factors.
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