A word
Problem
Kris has an endless supply of 4-cent and 7-cent stamps for mailing a package. What is the greatest amount of postage that cannot be affixed to a package using these stamps?
basically what is the gcm that these canot be..
easiest way...make a list
4,7,8,11,12,14,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,..... so the highest # is 17
To find the greatest amount of postage that cannot be affixed using 4-cent and 7-cent stamps, we can use a concept known as the Frobenius coin problem.
The Frobenius coin problem seeks to determine the largest value that cannot be expressed as a combination of given coin values. In this case, the coin values are 4 cents and 7 cents.
To solve this problem, we can use a formula known as the Frobenius number, denoted by F(a, b), where a and b are the coin values. For this particular problem, we want to find F(4, 7).
The formula to compute the Frobenius number is given by:
F(a, b) = a * b - a - b
For our case, F(4, 7) = (4 * 7) - 4 - 7 = 28 - 4 - 7 = 17.
Therefore, the greatest amount of postage that cannot be affixed to a package using 4-cent and 7-cent stamps is 17 cents.