Problem of the Week 1113

Student Seating

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If a teacher places his students on benches with 8 students per bench, then he will have 3 students left over on the final bench. If he decides to seat 9 students per bench, he'll have 4 students left over on the final bench. What is the smallest number of students his class could have?

Note: It's not difficult to come up with the answer but showing a mathematical derivation of the solution can be tricky.

Source: Terry Stickels (http://www.terrystickels.com/)

© Copyright 2009 Shilad Sen. Reproduced with permission.