Question

An army contingent of 616members is to march behind an army band of 32 members in a parade .The two groups are to march in the same number of columns.What is the maximum number of coloumns in which they can march?

Answer 1

The maximum number of columns is the $HCF$ of $616$ and $32$.

In order to find the $HCF$ , let us apply Euclid's division lemma to $616$ and $32$ to get

$616=32\times 19+8$

Let us now take the divisor $32$ as dividend and remainder 8 as the divisor and apply Euclid's division lemma to get

$32=8\times 4+0$

Since the remainder at this stage is $0$. Therefore the $HCF$ of $616$ and $32$ is $8$.

Hence the maximum number of columns in which they can march is $8$