Question

Frito-Lay’s chip factory in Arizona mainly produces potato, corn, and tortilla chips. Once a machine fills each bag with 235g of chips, then another machine weighs each filled bag. If a bag’s weight differs from 235g by more than 3g , the bag is removed from the assembly line. a. Write an absolute value equation that can be used to find the heaviest and lightest acceptable bags of chips. (1 mark) b. Algebraically solve your equation from part a.

Answer 1

The acceptable weight of a bag of chips is determined by the absolute value equation |w - 235| ≤ 3, which we solve to find the acceptable weight range between 232 grams and 238 grams, inclusive.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student has asked two questions regarding the weight of bags of chips in a Frito-Lay factory. To tackle this problem, we will write an absolute value equation and then solve it.

Part a

The acceptable range of weight for the bags is from (235 - 3) grams to (235 + 3) grams. We express this using an absolute value equation to represent the maximum deviation from the mean weight of 235g:

|w - 235| ≤ 3

where w represents the weight of the bag of chips.

Part b

To solve the equation |w - 235| ≤ 3, we consider two cases:

w - 235 ≤ 3

-(w - 235) ≤ 3 (which is the same as w - 235 ≥ -3)

Solving the first case:

w ≤ 235 + 3

w ≤ 238

This tells us the heaviest acceptable bag weighs 238 grams.

Solving the second case:

w ≥ 235 - 3

w ≥ 232

This tells us the lightest acceptable bag weighs 232 grams.

Therefore, the heaviest and lightest acceptable bags of chips can weigh between 232 grams and 238 grams, inclusive.