text: what is the answer to 8 plates and 12 things of forks how many will you have to by for an equal number of both   3 sets of plates and 2 sets of forks.... both have 24 in them...  to find the answer for any such problem, just find the least common multiple (lcm) of the given numbers. in this case the lcm of 8 and 12 is 24.  then the no. of sets of plates = 24/8 = 3 the no. of sets of forks = 24/12 = 2