IXL | Guess-and-check word problems

Clayton bought 7 bags of apples. The red apples came in bags of 9 and the green apples came in bags of 7. Clayton bought a total of 55 apples. How many bags of each type of apple did he buy?

bags of red apples

bags of green apples

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Learn with an example

question

A plumber bought some pieces of copper and plastic pipe. Each piece of copper pipe was 8 meters long and each piece of plastic pipe was 7 meters long. He bought 5 pieces of pipe. The total length of the pipe was 36 meters. How many pieces of each type of pipe did the plumber buy?

pieces of copper pipe

pieces of plastic pipe

solution

Use guess-and-check to solve the problem. Guess pairs of numbers that add up to 5.

Guess #1: 3 pieces of copper pipe and 2 pieces of plastic pipe

Find the number of pieces of pipe:

3 + 2 = 5

Find the total meters of pipe:

(8 × 3) + (7 × 2) = 24 + 14 = 38

The guess is incorrect. Try another guess.

Guess #2: 4 pieces of copper pipe and 1 piece of plastic pipe

Find the number of pieces of pipe:

4 + 1 = 5

Find the total meters of pipe:

(8 × 4) + (7 × 1) = 32 + 7 = 39

The guess is incorrect. Try another guess.

Guess #3: 1 piece of copper pipe and 4 pieces of plastic pipe

Find the number of pieces of pipe:

1 + 4 = 5

Find the total meters of pipe:

(8 × 1) + (7 × 4) = 8 + 28 = 36

The guess is correct. The plumber bought 1 piece of copper pipe and 4 pieces of plastic pipe.

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Teacher tools

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Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

E.4Multi-step word problems

M.11Find two numbers based on sum, difference, product, and quotient

N.11Solve word problems using guess-and-check

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