3 girls share a number of apples in the ration 5:3:2. If the highest share is 40 apples, find the smallest share

Let's call the shares of the three girls "5x", "3x", and "2x", where "x" is a constant factor that will allow us to determine the actual number of apples in each share. We are told that the highest share is 40 apples, which corresponds to the "5x" share. Therefore, we can set up an equation: 5x = 40 Solving for "x", we get: x = 8 Now we can determine the actual number of apples in each share by multiplying the corresponding factor by "x": - The largest share ("5x") has 5 x 8 = 40 apples - The second-largest share ("3x") has 3 x 8 = 24 apples - The smallest share ("2x") has 2 x 8 = 16 apples Therefore, the smallest share has 16 apples, which is option (C).