Bags of candy

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Derek had five bags of candy to give to his friends. Four of the bags had a total of 84 candies. The fifth contains for candies less than the average of the five bags. How many candies are in the fifth bag?

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You're kidding, or you're under 12.

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I don't think the first four bags have the same number of candies.

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Noddy24 wrote:

I don't think the first four bags have the same number of candies.

it doesn't matter

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Re: Bags of candy

Puhallader10 wrote:

Derek had five bags of candy to give to his friends. Four of the bags had a total of 84 candies. The fifth contains for candies less than the average of the five bags. How many candies are in the fifth bag?

Hi Puhallader

The 4 bags with a total of 84 has an average of 21 ( 84 divided by 4)

The fifth bag has 4 less than the average of the other 4 bags (21 - 4) = 17

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Re: Bags of candy

solipsister wrote:

Puhallader10 wrote:
Derek had five bags of candy to give to his friends. Four of the bags had a total of 84 candies. The fifth contains for candies less than the average of the five bags. How many candies are in the fifth bag?

Hi Puhallader

The 4 bags with a total of 84 has an average of 21 ( 84 divided by 4)

The fifth bag has 4 less than the average of the other 4 bags (21 - 4) = 17

way to get him an A on his hw ;-)

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Re: Bags of candy

Puhallader10 wrote:

Derek had five bags of candy to give to his friends. Four of the bags had a total of 84 candies. The fifth contains for candies less than the average of the five bags. How many candies are in the fifth bag?

No! No! No! That's not right---the four bags have a mode of 84, the mean is something else completly, so the mean is (84-3)/3=27. The other bag then has 24.

Rap

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There's not enough information to compute a mode.

When I first read this, I interpreted it incorrectly (the way solipsister did). Hence the snide remark. It's actually slightly trickier; so you're probably under 14.

(84 + x) / 5 = x + 4
x = 16

There are 16 candies in the fifth bag.

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markr wrote:

There's not enough information to compute a mode.

When I first read this, I interpreted it incorrectly (the way solipsister did). Hence the snide remark. It's actually slightly trickier; so you're probably under 14.

(84 + x) / 5 = x + 4
x = 16

There are 16 candies in the fifth bag.

that's why my sarcastic remark about the A....i thought solipsister was feeding him false information on purpuse

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You're probably right. And rap jumped on the band wagon with more potentially false info. Maybe I did the same. Puhallader10 will have to sort through these and perhaps learn something in the process.

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Oops, I didn't answer the question.

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markr wrote:

There's not enough information to compute a mode.

When I first read this, I interpreted it incorrectly (the way solipsister did). Hence the snide remark. It's actually slightly trickier; so you're probably under 14.

(84 + x) / 5 = x + 4
x = 16

There are 16 candies in the fifth bag.

Then if that it true (about the mode that is) then I've got a bit of a problem about the relation. If the fifth bag has 4 less (not more) then there's a sign error.

The relation should be

(84+x)/5=x-4
&
x=26

Rap

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:wink:

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I am sorry guys, but you lost me. Are you saying 26 is four less than the 84 in the other 4 bags?

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more or less Laughing

Rap

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I suspect that we're merely amusing ourselves at this point. Smile

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I came up with the same answer as mark (the 5th bag containing 16) Confused

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Of for gosh sake Laughing

the average is (84+x)/5
x(being the 5th bag) = the average-4

therefore:
x+4= the average
x+4=(84+x)/5
then multiply each side by 5 and so on.....
until you get the answer (16)

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As some other posters said:

Let x = The number of candies in the 5th bag.

x+4 = (84+x)/5

5x+20 = 84+x

4x = 64

x = 16

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Well, as no other posters said.....you should show ALL your work.

x + 4 = 84+x/5
5(x+4) = 5(84+x/5)
5x + 20 = 84 + x
5x + 20 - 20 = 84 + x - 20
5x = 64 + x
5x/x = (64 + x)/x
4x = 64
4x/4 = 64/4
4x = 64
x = 64/4
x = 16

......and no I didn't re-check my work. If I missed a step or it's wrong, too bad Laughing

Edit: btw I use the same method as Josheva, but that wouldn't cut it in school. You weren't allowed to shorten steps.

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Bags of candy

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