It's another Word Problem Wednesday, and we're back with a sweet little word problem designed to test your number sense! Solve today's word problem and check back tomorrow for the answer.
A bunch of bananas and a cantaloupe together weigh 6 pounds. A papaya and a cantaloupe together weigh 5 pounds. A papaya and a bunch of bananas together weigh 4 pounds. Find the weight of each fruit.
Update: Here's the answer and solution!
The bananas weigh 2.5 pounds, the cantaloupe 3.5 pounds, and the papaya weighs 1.5 pounds.
The first two pairs, bananas + cantaloupe and papaya + cantaloupe, have the cantaloupe in common, but bananas + cantaloupe is 1 pound heavier than papaya + cantaloupe, so the bananas must be 1 pound heavier than the papaya: B = P + 1. We also know that the bananas and papaya together weigh 4 pounds: B + P = 4. If we substitute P + 1 in for B in the second equation, we find that 2P + 1 = 4, so 2P = 3, so P = 1.5 pounds. From there, we can find that the bananas weigh 2.5 pounds and the cantaloupe weighs 3.5 pounds.
