There are 72 boys and 90 girls on a math competition team. for the next competition, mr. johnson would like to arrange all the students in equal rows with only girls or only boys in each row. what is the greatest number of students that can be in each row?

let's add {f(x)=x+1}f(x)=x+1 and {g(x)=2x}g(x)=2x together to make a new function.

f(x)+g(x) =(x+1)+(2x)=x+1+2x=3x+1

let's call this new function hh. so we have:

{h(x)}={f(x)}+{g(x)}{=3x+1}h(x)=f(x)+g(x)=3x+1

we can also evaluate combined functions for particular inputs. let's evaluate function hh above for x=2x=2. below are two ways of doing this.

method 1: substitute x=2x=2 into the combined function hh.

h(x)

h(2)

​    

=3x+1

=3(2)+1

=7

​ since h(x)=f(x)+g(x)h(x)=f(x)+g(x), we can also find h(2)h(2) by finding f(2) +g(2)f(2)+g(2).

first, let's find f(2)f(2):

f(x)

f(2)

​    

=x+1

=2+1

=3

​  

now, let's find g(2)g(2):

g(x)

g(2)

​    

=2x

=2⋅2

=4

​  

so f(2)+g(2)=3+4=\greend7f(2)+g(2)=3+4=7.

notice that substituting x =2x=2 directly into function hh and finding f(2) + g(2)f(2)+g(2) gave us the same answer!