GCF question (I think)

[lPing7]

Florist has 100 carantions, 150 tulips and 200 lilies
How many flowers did she use in each bunch?
I thought it was a simple GCF question and thatvthe answer would be 35
But it turns out that the answer is 9

 

[HallsofIvy]

This question makes no sense! Are we to assume that each bunch contains the same number of flowers? Are we to assume that each bunch can contain all flowers of one kind or the same number of each type of flower? Surely what you give is not the entire statement of the question.

 

[Ishuda]

Florist has 100 carantions, 150 tulips and 200 lilies
How many flowers did she use in each bunch?
I thought it was a simple GCF question and thatvthe answer would be 35
But it turns out that the answer is 9

Well she guessed 3,923 but ended up short and then tried 1 and got the right answer for 450 flowers in one bunch. Of course if there had to be two bunches, she would have had to guess again. Instead she asked her male co-worker but he guessed 200 and was also wrong so he changed his guess to 225 for two bunches.

 

[soroban]

Hello, lPing7!

Florist has 100 carnations, 150 tulips and 200 lilies.
How many flowers did she use in each bunch?

I thought it was a simple GCF question and that the answer would be 35.
But it turns out that the answer is 9

I agree with HallsofIvy.
The problem is poorly stated.

From the given answer, 9, I can guess the intent of the problem.

We are to divide the stock of flowers into "equal bunches".

Since: \(\displaystyle \begin{Bmatrix}100 &=& 50\cdot 2 \\ 150 &=& 50\cdot3 \\ 200 &=&50\cdot 4 \end{Bmatrix}\), we can make 50 bunches
. . each containing 2 carnations, 3 tulips, and 4 liles.
That is, 9 flowers per bunch.

Of course, we can make 25 bunches,
. . each with 4 carnations, 6 tulips and 8 lilies,
and so on.