Question

Professor Plump put a 23.5-pound weight on one side of a scaleand balanced it with 3 items on the other side. He had these itemsto choose from: a 4.5-pound rock, a 1.5-pound chunk of cheese, a3-pound pumpkin, a 10-pound cat, a 6-pound book, and a 9-pound clock. What 3 items balanced the scale?

Answer 1

The total weight is 23.5 pounds.

The sum of the weight of the three items =The total weight

The sum of the weight of the three items =23.5

Let's choose a 4.5-pound rock, then

the weight of the remaining two items =23.5 - 4.5

The weight of the remaining two items=19

!9 can be written as 10+9.

from the given weight of a cat is 10 pounds and the weight of the clock is 9 pounds.

`4.5+10+9=23.5`

Hence the required three items are

4.5-pound rock,

10-pound cat,

9-pound clock.