word problem formulas.

Question

there was a box of candy on the table. Maureen was hungry because she hadn't had breakfast so she ate half the candy. then sanju came along and noticed the candy. He thought it looked good and had not packed lunch so he took two-thirds of what was left in the box. Suzanne came by and decided to take three-fourths of the remaining candies with her to her next class. then arpita cam dashing up and took one piece of candy to munch on. when Kristen looked at candy box she saw there was just one piece of candy left. how many pieces of candy were there in the box to begin with.

solve the candy problem. construct two different representations that can be used to show the solution to this problem such as geometric and algebraic. explain the correspondence between the problem and each representation as well as between the two representations.

Answer 1

X=original candies

(1/4(1/3(1/2X)))-1 = 1

 

(1/24)x - 1 = 1

(1/24)x = 2

x = 48

 

To check:  

We start with 48

Maureen ate 1/2 (leaving 24)

Sanju ate 2/3 (leaving 8)

Suzanne ate 3/4 (leaving 2)

Arpita took 1 (leaving 1)

Kristen has 1 piece.