The table above shows the quantities and prices per pound of three

Hi Can any one explain how to decipher phrases such as "Twice as many pounds of cashews as almonds" etc ? I always get these statements wrong. Need help asap.

Hi its easy, you can just remeber it this way
"the variable which is at the center(cashews) " = "the factor by which it is greater/Lesser (twice)" * "the variable at the end(almonds)"
This works all the time u can just try it out.
Dont try to decipher just write it this way.

Hope this helps...

Just "make it true" by setting a=1, c=2 and w=3. You now have 6 pounds of cashews that average out to slightly more than $4 per pound. $4/pound x 6 pounds = $24, so the answer must be Choice E.

-Brian

Hello

I am having a bit of trouble understanding the wording of this question and I'm hoping one of you can help.

I understand how to add up the quantities and get 24.5. No problem there. My query is why is it 24.5a? If a=$4.00 then this doesn't make sense to me. Are we really just substituting the letter "a" for the "$" sign? I thought when the question asked for the cost in terms of "a", it wanted to know how many "a's", would it take to make something of the same cost i.e. $24.50. (answer being. 24.5/4, which is not in the answer choices)

Thanks in advance

Mike

I have this same question! Can someone respond please?

Hi MikeyMark & onmywaytoboston ,
I'll try to explain. The problem at hand is an average problem. Seller wants to make his/her job easier by reducing the quantities to an average so that the total price could be calculated depending on quantity of Almond bought.

It becomes a lot clearer if we use units with the variables.

Lets say, Quantity of cashews bought is c lbs , Almonds be a lbs and Walnuts be w lbs respectively.

So, to answer you question whether we could just substitute the letter "a" for the "$" sign?
No.

But we can substitute "a" with "a lbs of Almond".

Application?

Say you have 50$ and you want to buy nut mix. How would seller calculate how much of each type of nuts should he/she use?

24.5 * a = 50
a = 2.04 lbs of almond

Since we are given conditions to calculate quantities for cashews and Walnut, we use them as following.
c = 2a = 2 * 2.04 = 2.08 lbs of cashews
w = 3a = 3 * 2.04 = 6.12 lbs of walnuts

Hope that helps.

Cashews(c) = 2 * almonds(a) = $ 3.50 * 2 * a = $7a

Walnuts(c) = 3 * almonds(a) = $ 4.50 * 3 * a = $13.5a

Almonds = a * $4 = $4a

Total: $7a + $13.5a + $4a = $24.5a

Answer E

The ratio:

cashews: almonds: walnuts = 2 : 1 : 3

2a: 1a: 3a

Although we know the ratio of the quantity, simply adding up the ratio is not correct. This would give us 6a, which is a trap answer. We need to take into consideration how each quantity is weighted:

2a * 3.5 = 7a
a * 4 = 4a
3a * 4.5 = 13.5a
total = 24.5a

The answer is 24.5a because a is the variable. We don't know what the value of a is. It could be 5 or it could be 10,000.

cashews: almonds: walnuts
2a: 1a: 3a

The only thing we know is the ratio of cashews: almonds: walnuts; we don't know the exact amount.

After accounting for the cost of each nut, we have:

7a: 4a: 13.5a = 24.5a

Can someone pls let me know if there is any general way to translate such sentences into equations. I tend to get it opposite most of the time. Even here i wrote it as a=2c

pls help
VeritasKarishma Bunuel mikemcgarry

Convert the sentence into "is/are" form. After that, in place of "is/are", write "="

The mixture contains twice as many pounds of cashews as pounds of almonds,

Cashews are twice as much as almonds
c = 2*a

and 3 times as many pounds of walnuts as pounds of almonds.

Walnuts are 3 times as much as almonds
w = 3*a

Hi - This is a trick question .. .
Do note that

This question is forcing us to read / re-read the question before jumping to calculation!

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