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GCSE Maths question HELP!

So the question is
"A baker suuplies bread rolls to a catering company. The bread rolls are sold in packs of 24 for $1.99 per pack. The catering company want 500 fresh rolls each day. How much will the bill be for one week, assuming they do not work on sundays?" Okay so the answer is $248.75. And I nearly got to this answer but I ended up using a calculator because I didnt know how to divide the last bit. This is what I done.. So 240 packs = $19.9 so 480 =$39.8 then I tried to figure out how much one cost from the pack so I done 1.99/24 btw I started doing this on my calculator at this point) which gave me 0.08291667 and then I done that x20 which gave me 1.6583334. So then I added that to $39.8 and multiplied it all by 6 and got the answer... What I am asking is how do I figure out how much one costs easily without a calculator... Or should I do another method... HELP PLEASE XXXX
Original post by alevelssuck_
So the question is
"A baker suuplies bread rolls to a catering company. The bread rolls are sold in packs of 24 for $1.99 per pack. The catering company want 500 fresh rolls each day. How much will the bill be for one week, assuming they do not work on sundays?" Okay so the answer is $248.75. And I nearly got to this answer but I ended up using a calculator because I didnt know how to divide the last bit. This is what I done.. So 240 packs = $19.9 so 480 =$39.8 then I tried to figure out how much one cost from the pack so I done 1.99/24 btw I started doing this on my calculator at this point) which gave me 0.08291667 and then I done that x20 which gave me 1.6583334. So then I added that to $39.8 and multiplied it all by 6 and got the answer... What I am asking is how do I figure out how much one costs easily without a calculator... Or should I do another method... HELP PLEASE XXXX


I think the question is flawed. You can't buy 20.83333 packs of bread rolls - if they were to be fresh then you'd need to buy a whole number of packs each day and let some rolls go to waste - their answer contradicts this and I think that does not make sense.

Where is this from?
Original post by SeanFM
I think the question is flawed. You can't buy 20.83333 packs of bread rolls - if they were to be fresh then you'd need to buy a whole number of packs each day and let some rolls go to waste - their answer contradicts this and I think that does not make sense.

Where is this from?


That's the point of the question I think, you are meant to assume that the baker will buy 21 packs and use that to calculate costs.
Original post by SeanFM
I think the question is flawed. You can't buy 20.83333 packs of bread rolls - if they were to be fresh then you'd need to buy a whole number of packs each day and let some rolls go to waste - their answer contradicts this and I think that does not make sense.

Where is this from?


Its from the Edexcel Higher 1 GCSE Maths book... Like I was confused what to do without a calculator
Original post by Welshstig
That's the point of the question I think, you are meant to assume that the baker will buy 21 packs and use that to calculate costs.


That's the thing though, an answer of $248.75 implies 125 packs for 6 days, which is 125/6 packs per day, which is 20.83333..



Original post by alevelssuck_
Its from the Edexcel Higher 1 GCSE Maths book... Like I was confused what to do without a calculator



I think the question is flawed, as above. If you can't see why, I would use this as an exercise to see that you can't have .83 of a box and you can't account for, say, buying 125 boxes in one go for 248.75 as they've suggested, because then they wouldn't be fresh, so instead of 20.83333 boxes per day (as you were trying to calculate) you'd have to round up (think about coaches as an example, if you need 150 people on a coach and each coach can carry 100, you need 2 coaches, not 1.5) and assume that you can't use the 0.17777 rolls from the previous day as they need to be fresh. This way, you are always dealing with a whole number of boxes and the 1.99 isn't the worst number to multiply by.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Welshstig
That's the point of the question I think, you are meant to assume that the baker will buy 21 packs and use that to calculate costs.


When I assumed they will buy 21 packs and done the calculations I got the wrong answer.. I think thats why it specifaclly says 500 rolls. But it still doesnt make sense to buy 20 packs and a bit
Reply 6
So normally I would also find cost per 1 roll etc. but if it is on a non-calculator paper then it will end up will tricky decimals/fractions which can be avoided. So we need to look for a way that deals with easier numbers.

Method:
First I tried 500/24 (to get no. packs needed per day) to see if that gave a nice number but it didn't.

Then I did (500 * 6)/24. 500buns * 6days is the no. buns needed per week and if there are 24 buns per pack (500 * 6)/24 gives no. packs needed per week. Luckily this comes out to give a nice whole number, 125.

Then we can just multiply no. packs needed by cost per pack, 125 * 1.99 = $248.75 ((This sum can be easier by doing 125 * 2 = 250, then 250 - (0.01*125) which is 250 - (125/100) = 248.75))

I've explained this in a bit of a convoluted way, but the general idea if you don't have a calculator is to try and find a way that deals with easier numbers. (If that doesn't work then it is often easier to work with fractions instead of reccurring decimals.)
Hope this helps
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by alevelssuck_
When I assumed they will buy 21 packs and done the calculations I got the wrong answer.. I think thats why it specifaclly says 500 rolls. But it still doesnt make sense to buy 20 packs and a bit


Could just be a case that the book has the wrong answer, no need to worry about it lol, especially if its like a first edition
Original post by Mhogl
So normally I would also find cost per 1 roll etc. but if it is on a non-calculator paper then it will end up will tricky decimals/fractions which can be avoided. So we need to look for a way that deals with easier numbers.

Method:
First I tried 500/24 (to get no. packs needed per day) to see if that gave a nice number but it didn't.

Then I did (500 * 6)/24. 500buns * 6days is the no. buns needed per week and if there are 24 buns per pack (500 * 6)/24 gives no. packs needed per week. Luckily this comes out to give a nice whole number, 125.

Then we can just multiply no. packs needed by cost per pack, 125 * 1.99 = $248.75 ((This sum can be easier by doing 125 * 2 = 250, then 250 - (0.01*125) which is 250 - (125/100) = 248.75))

I've explained this in a bit of a convoluted way, but the general idea if you don't have a calculator is to try and find a way that deals with easier numbers. (If that doesn't work then it is often easier to work with fractions instead of reoccurring decimals.)
Hope this helps


Omg thank you so much, you made my life much easier:tongue:
Original post by Mhogl
So normally I would also find cost per 1 roll etc. but if it is on a non-calculator paper then it will end up will tricky decimals/fractions which can be avoided. So we need to look for a way that deals with easier numbers.

Method:
First I tried 500/24 (to get no. packs needed per day) to see if that gave a nice number but it didn't.

Then I did (500 * 6)/24. 500buns * 6days is the no. buns needed per week and if there are 24 buns per pack (500 * 6)/24 gives no. packs needed per week. Luckily this comes out to give a nice whole number, 125.

Then we can just multiply no. packs needed by cost per pack, 125 * 1.99 = $248.75 ((This sum can be easier by doing 125 * 2 = 250, then 250 - (0.01*125) which is 250 - (125/100) = 248.75))

I've explained this in a bit of a convoluted way, but the general idea if you don't have a calculator is to try and find a way that deals with easier numbers. (If that doesn't work then it is often easier to work with fractions instead of reoccurring decimals.)
Hope this helps


But they need 500 fresh per day, if it was per 6 days, this way would work just fine, but its not. Its a bit of sneaky beaky question lmao
Reply 10
Original post by Welshstig
But they need 500 fresh per day, if it was per 6 days, this way would work just fine, but its not. Its a bit of sneaky beaky question lmao


Yes but the question does ask how much they would need to pay per week not including Sundays (6 days) - the examiners cheekily made it solvable but only if you notice that they are looking for price for 6 days.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 11
Original post by alevelssuck_
Omg thank you so much, you made my life much easier:tongue:


You're welcome :smile:
Original post by Mhogl
Yes but the question does ask how much they would need to pay per week not including Sundays (6 days) - the examiners cheekily made it solvable but only if you notice that they are looking for price for 6 days.


That is if you assume that they take 20.833333 packets per day, but that's impossible, they have to take at least 21 per day. Then we have to do the whole 21*6*1.99 calculation. Think of how much they take per day rather than per week as it explicitly mentions fresh per day which probably means thats how they want you to calculate it.

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