Problem solving math question:?

Question

In Natasha's sescret sweet drawer, all but three candy bars are snickers, all but three candy bars are Milky ways, and all but three candy bars are Kit Kats. How many bars of each type does Natasha have in her sweet drawer? (Hint: Natasha does not need to have whole candy bars.)

Answer 1

By symmetry, we know there have to be an equal number of each candy bar (since you could interchange the names and still have the exact same problem).

All but three bars are snickers. Hence, three bars are NOT snickers - and since there are equal amounts of each bar, that means 1.5 must be Milky Way and 1.5 must be Kit Kat. Similarly, 1.5 must be Snickers.

Natasha has 1.5 bars of each type in her sweet drawer.

Answer 2

let x = number of candy bars

then x - 3 = snickers
and x - 3 = milky way
and x - 3 = kit kats

assuming all her candy bars are either snickers, milky way or kit kats (that is no hersheys, etc) then....

# snickers + # milky way + # kit kats = total number of bars

(x-3) + (x-3) +(x-3) = x

3x - 9 = x
2x = 9
x = 4.5

since she has (x-3) of each candy bar, she has 1.5 snickers, 1.5 milky way and 1.5 kit kats

Answer 3

t - 3 = s
t - 3 = m
t - 3 = k
s + m + k = t
(t-3) + (t-3) + (t-3) = t
3t - 9 = t
2t = 9
t = 9/2
s = m = k = 9/2 - 3 = 3/2