How do I solve?

Question

With 4 days left in the mountain bug collecting contest, Mindy has caught 15 fewer bugs than Linda. If Mindy is to win the contest by collecting more bugs than Linda, at least how many bugs per day must Mindy catch?

Answer 1

So Mindy needs at least 15 bugs in 4 days, and so in order to win (assuming Linda does not catch anymore) Mindy would need to catch 16 (1 more than Linda's total as of now). So you could use 4x = 16, and so the answer would be 4.

Answer 2

Actually, this problem does not have enough information. If Mindy continues collecting while Linda stops, then  Minday would need to collect 16 bugs over four days. 

4d = 16, or 4 bugs per day.

However, if Linda continues collecting, we don't know the exact number that either will collect. For Minda to pass Linda, she still would have to collect 16 more bugs, or 4 more bugs per day, but we would not know precisely how many. I don't think we can assume from the wording of the question that Linda's total will remain constant.

Answer 3

or you could have said that 15 bugs divided by 4 days equals 3.75.  So to win the answer would be the next whole number 4.

Colleen 10/7/12