How to answer this questions in two different ways: using a table and guess and check method.

Question

Points are scored for each medal won in a competition.

The Rockets won a total of 16 medals and scored 36 points. 6 of their medals were Silver.

How many Gold medals did the Rockets win?

Medal	Points per medal
gold	3
silver	2
Bronze	1

Answer 1

Hi, Julz.

Okay, so, if 6 medals were silver, then 6 x 2 = 12 points were from those medals.

So, there are 10 medals that are either gold or bronze that total 24 points.

So we can make 2 equations:

Let X = gold and Y = bronze

X + Y = 10

3(X) + 1(Y) = 24

So, since X + Y = 10,

X = 10 - Y

Now, substitute this into the 2nd equation:

3(10 - Y) + 1(Y) = 24

30 - 3Y + Y = 24

30 - 2Y = 24

2Y = 6

Y = 3

Since Y = 3, and X + Y = 10, then X = 7

Therefore, there are 7 Gold medals.

For the guess and check method, you can just start with 1 gold and 9 bronze medals and figure out how many points you would have, and keep increasing the gold and decreasing the bronze medals until you end up with 24 points.