Question

A health food company packs almond butter in jars. Some jars hold 250 g. Other jars hold 500 g. On Tuesday, the company packed 186.5 kg of almond butter in 511 jars. How many jars of each size did they pack?

Answer 1

Number of 250 g jars packed that day = 276

Number of 500 g jars packed that day = 235

Explanation:

Let the company packs x jars of 250 g and y jars of 500 g

Total number of jars packed by the health food company = 511

⇒ x + y = 511

⇒ x = 511 - y ......(1)

Now, quantity of almond packed in 511 jars = 186.5 Kg

1 Kg = 1000 g

⇒ 186.5 Kg = 186500 g

⇒ 250x + 500y = 186500

Putting value of x from equation (1) in the above equation formed.

⇒ 250(511 - y) + 500y = 186500

⇒ 127750 + 250y = 186500

⇒ 250y = 58750

⇒ y = 235

Putting this value in equation (1) ,

x = 511 - 235

⇒ x = 276

Hence, number of 250g jars packed that day = 276

Number of 500 g jars packed that day = 235

Answer 2

Let the number of 250g=0.25 kg jars be x and that of 500g=0.5 kg jams be y;
therefore:
total number of jars ws
x+y=511
x=511-y..........i

total mount kgs was:
0.25x+0.5y=186.5....ii
substituting i in ii
0.25(511-y)+0.5y=186.5
127.75-0.25y+0.5y=186.5
solving for y we get:
0.25y=186.5-127.75
0.25y=58.75
y=58.75/0.25
y=235 jars
and
x=511-x
=511-235
=276
hence we conclude that there was 235 jars with 0.5 kg almond and 276 jars with 0.25 kg almonds