A certain whole number less than 100 leaves the remainders 1, 2, 3, and 4 when divided,

respectively, by 2, 3, 4, and 5. What is the whole number?

Understand the Problem

Find the integer that is less than 100 which has the remainders 1, 2, 3, and 4 when divided,
while also being divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5. What is the integer? We are asked to find a number less
than 100 and when divided by 2, 3, 4, and 5 will have the remainders of 1, 2, 3, and 4. So that
when divided by two the remainder is one etc.

Devise a Plan
To solve this problem we must first start with what is given to us. Our limit is to 100 and we must
make sure that our number has remainders of 1, 2, 3, and 4 when the number is divided by 2, 3,
4, 5 but still hold remainders so the number cannot be an even number. Since an even number
won't produce a remainder. Therefore, we can eliminate any two digit number that is divisible by
2 because they wont hold a remainder. All numbers added to equal a digit of a multiple of 3 can
be eliminated because then there won't be a remainder. The same can be said when dividing by
5, so any number ending in a 5 or 0 can be eliminated. Now we can have “ x “ represent the
whole number we are looking for. When we have x divided by 4 we have a remainder of 3. Use
the guess and check method next to find all numbers that divided by 3. Once we have the
answer we have to check if it is divided like so, with x divided by 4 is 3 and x divided by 3 is two
and x divided by 2 is one for remainders.

Carry Out The Plan

Know that “x” must be divided by 2, 3, 4, and 5 to equal 1, 2, 3, and 4. Shown as:

When “x“ is divided by

x/2 x/3 x/4 x/5

Then the remainder equals =1 =2 =3 =4

Step 1: Remove all even numbers from the

hundreds chart with a red colored pencil.
Step 2: To find “x” is divisible by 5 with a remainder
of 4 the ones digit must either be a 4 or 9. Remove
all the digits that do not end in 4 or 9 with a blue
colored pencil. The answer should be seen in the
9’s column.
Step 3: Eliminate any numbers that leave a
remainder of 1 or 0 when multiplied by 3 with a
yellow colored pencil. The numbers 29, 59, and 89
are divisible by 3 with the remainders of 1 or 0.
Step 4: Divide the numbers 29, 59, and 89 by 4. One of these answers must have a remainder
of 3 to be our “x”.

29 / 4 = 7 R 1

59 /4 = 14 R 3

89 / 4 = 22 R 1

Since 29 and 89 have remainder 1 they cannot be our “x”.

To check 59/2 = 29 R 1 59/3= 19 R 2 59/4= 14 R 3 59/5= 11 R 4

Thus 59 is our number “x”.

Look Back
By following the steps in Carrying out the plan, our number 59 came up after using a visual aid
(100s chart) and dividing. The numbers we are given are from 1 to 100 and we are given the
divisors and remainders. From using these divisors we state that “x” is our number that is
divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5 with remainders of 1, 2, 3, and 4. We check our answer 59 and plug it into
our x to see that they hold the remainders. Another way we could have solved this problem is
working out steps in a different order/ backwards. To begin looking at another way we look for
the LCM in (2, 3, 4, 5)- 1. Because (2 ,3, 4, 5) have a difference of one with their pairs of ( 1, 2,
3, 4) of the remainders.