Sharing Ratio -- A shop sells a mix of small chocolate bars and large chocolate bars

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  • #1
paulb203
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Silly question?
A shop sells small chocolate bars and large chocolate bars

The small bars are sold in packs of 4
The large bars are sold in packs of 9

On one day;

packs of small sold ; packs of large sold = 5:2

A total of 95 bars were sold

How many small bars were sold?

*

My question; Is this an example of a badly thought out question? The only answer I can come up with involves a fraction of a pack, which doesn't seem to make sense.

(It's from Maths Genie).
 
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  • #2
I also got an answer with a fraction of a small pack. You should show your work if you want better advice.
 
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  • #3
What is the minimum number of candy bars that can be sold with the 5:2 ratio. The next smallest? The one after that?

How does 95 fit into this?
 
  • #4
I should have said that I got an answer that had a non-integer number of small packs.
 
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  • #5
paulb203 said:
A total of 95 bars were sold
## 95 ## is an error in the problem statement.
It should be ## 190 ##.
 
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  • #6
FactChecker said:
I also got an answer with a fraction of a small pack. You should show your work if you want better advice.
Ah, sorry.

I started with the ratio of 5:2 for the packs
Then mulitiplied this by the number of bars in the packs to get 20:18
Then simplified that to 10:9, which gives us 19 parts

95/19 = 5

10(5)=50 small bars

50 bars/4 in a pack = 12.5 packs

But you can't (normally) buy .5 of a pack (?!)
 
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  • #7
Vanadium 50 said:
What is the minimum number of candy bars that can be sold with the 5:2 ratio. The next smallest? The one after that?

How does 95 fit into this?
Minimum;
5(4) : 2(9)
= 38

Next smallest;
10(4) : 4(9)
=76

Next;
15(4) : 6(9)
=114

Yeah, how does 95 fit?
 
  • #8
Gavran said:
## 95 ## is an error in the problem statement.
It should be ## 190 ##.
I'm glad to hear you say that. I took ages over this one, thinking I must be going wrong somewhere.
 
  • #9
paulb203 said:
Ah, sorry.

I started with the ratio of 5:2 for the packs
Then mulitiplied this by the number of bars in the packs to get 20:18
Then simplified that to 10:9, which gives us 19 parts

95/19 = 5

10(5)=50 small bars

50 bars/4 in a pack = 12.5 packs

But you can't (normally) buy .5 of a pack (?!)
I agree. That's correct. I don't know what half of a small pack means.
 
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