Should I be posting more ‘seasonal problems’  Ha  maybe….   I’m a bit of a scrooge  really,  try not tow think of Christmas until December reaches double figures in the date

But here is a problem posted in one of my Facebook groups which I thought I’d share with my diary

Might be the way I think, but I automatically think of Algebra when I see this problem

There are two things that we don’t know,  the weight of the box and the weight of a chocolate.  OK, we have only been asked for the weight of the box, not a chocolate but the weight of each chocolate is there in the problem, and I always like to add extra, especially if its chocolate!

Let b be the weight of the box, c the weight of 1 chocolate

b + 8c = 280g  : Eq1
b + 5c = 199g  : Eq2

Subtract Eq 2 from Eq 1 gived

3c = 81g   – so c = 27g

So from Eq 2  b + 135g  so c = 64g

I always like to use the other equation as a check when solving simultaneous equations

64 + 8 x 27 + 280g  as required by the check