Question

Two tankers contain $850litres$ and $680litres$ of petrol respectively. Find the maximum capacity of a container which can measure the petrol of either tanker in exact number of times.

Answer 1

Clearly, the maximum capacity of the container is the $HCF$ of $850$ and $680$ in litres.
So, Let us find the $HCF$ of $850$ and $680$ by Euclids algorithm.

$1:850=680\times 1+170$

$2:680=170\times 4+0$

In step 2, remainder is zero.

By Euclid's division algorithm, $HCF$ of $850$ and $680$ is $170$.

Hence, capacity of the container must be $170$ litres.