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'Nutty Mixture' printed from http://nrich.maths.org/
A lot of you had a really good attempt
at this question. In addition to Ruth, Tom and Ollie (whose
solutions are given below), well done to those of you who got the
answer correct:
Talia and Maelona from Jebel Ali school,
Dubai; Tom from C.P.S.; Katie, Oliver and Daniella from Portsmouth
Grammar School; Amy from Stoke by Nayland Middle School; Daniel
from Camberwell South Primary School, Melbourne, Australia; Zak
from Clavering Primary School; Andrew Mott from Aldermaston C.E.
primary school; Alice and Miriam from Aldermaston Primary; Alara
from IK Primary School and Jason (school unknown).
Ruth from Oxford High sent in this clearly
explained solution:
In the first problem Rachel has double the number of peanuts to
cashew nuts. She has 8 cashew nuts in her bag so you double the
number of cashew nuts and you get 16 peanuts.
In the second problem Marianne also has a bag of nuts but this time
she has 3 peanuts for every 2 cashew nuts. Marianne has 12 peanuts
which is 4 times bigger than 3. So she will have 8 cashew nuts
because this is 4 times bigger than 2.
When you add the two bags together they make the following:
| Bag Owner |
Cashews |
Peanuts |
| Rachel |
8 |
16 |
| Marianne |
8 |
12 |
| Total |
16 |
28 |
16 : 28 = 4 : 7
Because both 16 and 28 can be divided by 4, the ratio in its
simplest form is 4 : 7
Tom and Ollie of Ardingly College had a
slightly different way of explaining it:
Q1: Rachel's bag of nuts should contain 8 cashews and 16
peanuts. We found this out by doubling the cashews and converting
them to peanuts.
Q2: Marianne's bag of nuts should contain 12 peanuts and 8
cashews we found out how many cashews there were by working through
the amounts in stages. These are our workings out:
2-3
4-6
6-9
8-12
Q3: Rachel and Marianne's bag of mixed nuts should contain a
cancelled down ratio of 4:7 (left = cashews right = peanuts). We
worked this out by adding the different nuts up in groups; the
uncancelled ratio was 16:28. We cancelled the ratio down
twice.
How to do the last section:
To do this last part you must know all the amounts of peanuts
and cashew nuts in both girls' bags. The nuts from Rachel's bag
were 8 cashew nuts and 16 peanuts and from Marianne's bag were 8
cashew nuts and 12 peanuts. Next you must add the amount of peanuts
together which makes 28 peanuts and the amount of cashew nuts which
gives the answer of 16 peanuts. This should be written as 28:16 or
16:28 which can be reduced by the number which goes into them both
by dividing them. You will know your answer when no number goes
into both of them.