Maylin and Nina are making fruit baskets. They have 36 apples, 27 bananas, and 18 oranges. They want each basket to contain the same amount of each fruit. Maylin believes the greatest number of baskets they can make is 6, and Nina believes the greatest number of baskets they can make is 9.
Determine who is correct. Explain how you know.
Describe the error made by the person who was incorrect.
Nina is correct. The greatest number of baskets they can make is 9. This can be determined by dividing the total number of each fruit by the number of baskets they want to make. 36 divided by 9 is 4, 27 divided by 9 is 3, and 18 divided by 9 is 2. Therefore, each basket can contain 4 apples, 3 bananas, and 2 oranges.
Maylin made an error by not dividing the total number of each fruit by the number of baskets they wanted to make.