Aparty store sells large plates in packs of 12 and small plates of 8 . in order to have an equal number of both , what is the least amount of large plates that would have to be purchased

The leas amount of large plates that would have to be purchased is 24

So the person would buy 2 packs of large plates and 3 packs of small plates.

How to: the way to find this out, is to find the first multiplication of 8 that is a number equally divided by 12. So you go:
8x1 = 8 (less than 12, so not enough)
8x2 = 16 (more than 12, but still not enough to divide equally)
8x3 = 24 (bingo!)

Hope it helps.