Question

Brenda had some sweets. If she gave each friend 8 sweets, she would need another 44 sweets. If she gave each friend 16 sweets, she would need another 220 sweets. How many friends did Brenda give the sweets to?

Answer 1

Brenda did not give the sweets to any friends.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's assign variables to the unknowns in the problem.

Let F be the number of friends Brenda gave the sweets to.

The first sentence tells us that if Brenda gave each friend 8 sweets, she would need another 44 sweets. This can be written as the equation: 8F + 44 = S, where S represents the total number of sweets Brenda had.

The second sentence tells us that if Brenda gave each friend 16 sweets, she would need another 220 sweets. This can be written as the equation: 16F + 220 = S.

Now we have a system of two equations:

8F + 44 = S

16F + 220 = S

We can solve this system of equations by substituting one equation into the other:

8F + 44 = 16F + 220

44 - 220 = 16F - 8F

-176 = 8F

F = -176/8

F = -22

Since we can't have a negative number of friends, the answer is that Brenda did not give the sweets to any friends.