SOLUTION: ben and jerry's sells 4 times more ice cream cones ($3) than shakes ($8).If last month's sales toaaled $4,800, how many of each were sold? check your anwers

Question 1116453: ben and jerry's sells 4 times more ice cream cones ($3) than shakes ($8).If last month's sales toaaled $4,800, how many of each were sold? check your anwers
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, greenestamps:
Answer by ikleyn(52777) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
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x shakes and 4x ice cream cones. 8x + 3*(4x) = 4800 <<<---=== It is the "money" equation. Simplify and solve for x: 8x + 12x = 4800 ====> 20x = = 240. Answer. 240 shakes and 4*240 = 960 ice cream cones. Check. 3*960 + 8*240 = 4800 dollars. ! Correct !

Solved and checked.

Answer by greenestamps(13198) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

The answer from the other tutor is undoubtedly the intended answer for the problem.

However, in fact, the statement of the problem is flawed; as the problem is worded, the answers are not whole numbers, as they must be.

The problem is in the use of the phrase "... 4 times more...". The other tutor interprets this as meaning x shakes and 4x ice creams. While that is how most people would interpret the phrase, in fact that is not grammatically correct.

If x is the number of ice creams, then "4 times more" than x is x, plus another 4x (that is, the original number, plus that number 4 TIMES MORE), making it 5x.

With 5x ice creams at $3 each and x shakes at $8 each, you can't get total sales of $4800 except with answers that are not whole numbers.

Be wary of math problems that use the phrase "n times more than" some other number. Nearly always, the author of the problem meant "n times AS MUCH AS" the other number.
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