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jmc

prealgebra senior

Problem

What is the greatest integer less than 100 for which the greatest common factor of that integer and 18 is 3?
Solution
The prime factors of 18 are 2, 3, and 3. If the greatest common factor with 18 is 3, that means the other number is a multiple of 3 but not 2, 6, or 9. Since the other number cannot be an even number (multiple of 2), we start with 99 and look at decreasing odd numbers. 99 is a multiple of 9, 97 and 95 are not multiples of 3, so the greatest integer less than 100 that satisfies the conditions is .
Final answer
93