mindbender

4 times 1/4 of a pumpkin. Or to put it another way, as much as 1 pumpkin.
HehHeh.

sorry adrian not the answer i'm looking for. but a gallant effort

There is not enough information for an answer. The "a pumpkin" is undefined.

I'm honoured Craven to have your company, but the question is correct and it has an answer

If the word "particular" was removed then the answer would be 3kg but with that word there you create ambiguity as to whether the two pumpkins are the same weight. Still like my answer though.

sean,

I'll wait for the answer to restate my case. ;-)

Adrian, you are correct, since this pumpkin weighs 3/4 of a kilogram plus 3/4 of a pumpkin, then 1/4 of a pumpkin weighs 3/4 of a kilogram and a whole pumpkin must weigh 3 kilograms

what a player,well done

Couldn't spoil that one for you, you might not have let me stay in a fortnights time

Ok, again "a pumpkin" was not defined and could have weighed anything.

"A person weighs 100 pounds plus 1/2 the weight of another person."

150 pounds? NO. The other person was not defined and could have weighed 200 pounds.

Again, there was not enough information for an answer. "A pumpkin's" weight can vary.

disagress craven though i see where you are coming from , its a bit like algebra, youre given a bit of information and the rest adds on from there.
no doubt you will correct me again

But like in algebra, you can't make the assumption that two variables are equal.

x = 3/4 + 3/4y

And also like in algebra sometimes you can't solve for x.

since this particular pumpkin weighs 3/4 of a kilogram plus 3/4 of a pumpkin then the 3/4 of a pumpkin is actually defined. So 1/4 of a pumpkin weighs 3/4 of a Kilogram therefore a whole pumpkin in this particular case must weigh 3 kilograms

The riddle didn't say "this pumpkin" + "this pumpkin".

There is nothing to qualify the second pumpkin's weight. It says "A pumpkin".

But I shan't continue the merry-go-round. Believe what you will and if neccessary we'll have to just think differently.

its all good fun though

best wishes Sean

Craven DO NOT Give up, U are Correct!!!!

Oh, I know that but convincing sean is not on my list of priorities.

This was quite simple, I found one pumpkin that weighed 3/4 of a kilogram, then took another pumpkin, cut 1/4 off then set it on a scale (it was the only way I could determine how much to add) added that weight to the first pumpkin and came up with 17 pounds.(the second pumpkin was really big)
If on the other hand the problem had more information, such as the weight of the second pumpkin, then it would be easy to solve the problem, as there was just no way to tell how much weight we were dealing with.

Or it could have read, A particular pumpkin weighs 3/4 of a kilogram plus 3/4 of the pumpkin....