Serena has 1214 nickels in a jar. What is the least number of nickels that Serena should remove so that she would be able to divide the remaining nickels equally among her 3 friends and not have any nickels left over?

Rationale

Serena should remove 2 nickels.

To ensure that the remaining nickels can be evenly divided among her 3 friends, the total number of nickels must be a multiple of 3. Since 1214 is not divisible by 3, removing 2 nickels will result in 1212, which is divisible by 3.

A (0) YOUR ANSWER

If Serena removes 0 nickels, she will still have 1214 nickels. Since 1214 divided by 3 equals 404 with a remainder of 2, the nickels cannot be evenly distributed among her friends, leaving her with leftover nickels.

B (1) YOUR ANSWER

Removing 1 nickel would leave Serena with 1213 nickels. When divided by 3, 1213 results in 404 with a remainder of 1, indicating that there would still be leftover nickels after attempting to distribute them among her friends.

C (2) CORRECT

By removing 2 nickels, Serena would have 1212 left. Since 1212 divided by 3 equals 404 with no remainder, this allows her to evenly distribute the nickels among her 3 friends with none left over. Thus, this is the correct choice.

D (3) YOUR ANSWER

If Serena removes 3 nickels, she would have 1211 remaining. Dividing 1211 by 3 yields 403 with a remainder of 2, which means she would still not be able to distribute the nickels evenly among her friends.

Conclusion

To achieve an equal distribution of nickels among her 3 friends, Serena must ensure the total is a multiple of 3. Removing 2 nickels from her initial count of 1214 achieves this, resulting in 1212, which can be evenly divided among her friends without any leftovers. Other options either leave her with nickels that cannot be evenly divided or do not yield the minimum number of removals needed.

Serena has 1214 nickels in a jar. What is the least number of nickels that Serena should remove so that she would be able to divide the remaining nickels equally among her 3 friends and not have any nickels left over?

Serena should remove 2 nickels.

Related Questions

Related Quizzes

How familiar were you with this question?

Report an Issue

Rate this Practice Test