Monday, 3 November 2025

Exercise (2.4).14

There are between 500 and 600 soldiers in a battalion. We know when they are divided into groups of six, eight, and 11 that there are three left over in each case. How many soldiers are there in the battalion?


Let $n$ be the number of soldiers. We are given

$$ k[6,8,11]  = n - 3 $$

$$ 500 < n-3 < 600 $$

We note that $[6, 8, 11] = 264$, and so $k=2$ gives $k[6,8,11]=528=n-3$. 

Which means $n=531$, the number of soldier sin a battalion.