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Pencils come in packages of 10 . Erasers come in packages of 12. Philip wants to purchase the smallest number of pencils and erasers so that he will have exactly 1 eraser per pencil. How many packages of pencils and erasers should Phillip buy?

Pencils come in packages of 1010 . Erasers come in packages of 1212. Philip wants to purchase the smallest number of pencils and erasers so that he will have exactly 11 eraser per pencil. How many packages of pencils and erasers should Phillip buy?

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Q. Pencils come in packages of 1010 . Erasers come in packages of 1212. Philip wants to purchase the smallest number of pencils and erasers so that he will have exactly 11 eraser per pencil. How many packages of pencils and erasers should Phillip buy?
  1. Identify the problem: Identify the problem.\newlinePhilip wants to have exactly 11 eraser for each pencil. Pencils come in packages of 1010, and erasers come in packages of 1212. We need to find the smallest number of packages he should buy to have the same number of pencils and erasers.
  2. Determine the LCM: Determine the Least Common Multiple (LCM).\newlineTo find the smallest number of pencils and erasers Philip can buy in whole packages, we need to find the LCM of the package sizes, which are 1010 and 1212.
  3. Calculate the LCM: Calculate the LCM of 1010 and 1212. The prime factorization of 1010 is 2×52 \times 5. The prime factorization of 1212 is 22×32^2 \times 3. The LCM is the product of the highest powers of all prime factors present in both numbers: LCM(10,12)=22×3×5=4×3×5=60\text{LCM}(10, 12) = 2^2 \times 3 \times 5 = 4 \times 3 \times 5 = 60.
  4. Determine packages needed: Determine the number of packages needed.\newlineSince the LCM is 6060, Philip needs to buy enough packages to have 6060 pencils and 6060 erasers.\newlineFor pencils, 6060 pencils // 1010 pencils per package == 66 packages.\newlineFor erasers, 6060 erasers // 606000 erasers per package == 606022 packages.
  5. Verify the solution: Verify the solution.\newlinePhilip should buy 66 packages of pencils and 55 packages of erasers. This will give him 6060 pencils and 6060 erasers, which is exactly 11 eraser per pencil.

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