Math Challenge

[NeedForHelp]

Ok, you go to a 7 11 store and you get yourself 4 different things, but when you're finished buying all 4 of the idems, the price came out to be $7.11. The clerk said that with these 4 idems, you can add them together to have a tottal of $7.11, and ALSO, when you multiply them together, it will end up to $7.11. How strange but you just happen to lost the recipt. Now here comes the questions, what were the prices for the 4 idems.

Basically "If you purchase 4 unique items with a total price of $7.11, what is the price of each item if the individual prices multiplied together also equal $7.11?"

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

this gr 7 or gr 8 math?

 

[Stealth1024]

Sounds like one of the questions on the 5th grade state Math standardized tests.

 

[cgtran]

but the question is, could you solve it?
looks like a 11th grade problem to me, pretty hard too.
Can anyone find the answer for this cause I can't.
All I come up with is a+b+c+d=7.11=abcd

 

[Stealth1024]

well let's see here. according to the idiots who design those standardized tests, they would want to take the following approach... and get nowhere

a + b + c + d = 7.11 and abcd = 7.11

so

0 = abcd - a - b - c - d

(don't you just love alphabet soup? hehe)

 

[SillyBoy]

I don't know about assigning the grade level to anything above 3rd grade - because if someone can't spell "items" correctly...

-

 

[Stealth1024]

Maybe your problem isn't math related, its grammer related... You can say everything you just said much more succinctly:

If you purchase 4 unique items with a total price of $7.11, what is the price of each item if the individual prices multiplied together also equal $7.11?

 

[Mark R]

That was easy, although I suppose that I did cheat by delegating the problem to Microsoft Excel.

However, I don't really know what level that question is supposed to be aimed at? Do they really expect a simple trial-and-refinement approach? This is not a difficult technique and if sensible starting values are used will give the answer quickly.

 

[NeedForHelp]

how did you do it with excel?

 

[NeedForHelp]

So what did you get as an answer?

 

[Specialist]

It's 1.7775!

 

[medic]

Nope..1.7775 is 9.98

 

[cgtran]

that's what I was about to say

 

[Stealth1024]

this is amusing to watch this unfold...

So Mr. NeedHelp do you have an answer for us and a way to solve it such as by using a system of equations?

 

[cgtran]

I don't think he'll have the answer yet, but keep on trying people.
Eventually we'll get an answer.
This is no 8th grade math, it's more like college math.

Someone said they could do by programing it into qbasic(but that would be cheating)
Have anyone tried that though?

or have an equation for this?

 

[Specialist]

DAMN it would take me 1 hour to find the solution!
Where did you get that problem

 

[Mark R]

I certainly can't find an equation for it.

And yes, I did have to resort to programming to find the answer by brute force and ignorance.

 

[NeedForHelp]

There is an answer to this of course, I got it from my professor. It was a challenge math questions for the class.
yeah, it would be cheating to have an answer from a computer. But at least we'll can get the answer first so we could work it backward to see if there exist an equation for it, rather than trial-and-error.
So did any one find the answers??

 

[NeedForHelp]

so what's the answer?

 

[medic]

$3.16
$1.50
$1.25
$1.20
_______
$7.11

3.16 X 1.5 X 1.25 X 1.2 = 7.11

 

[cgtran]

how did you get your answer?

 

[jinsonxu]

Interesting! CRV, How did you do it? By Excel? If so, how?

 

[Specialist]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DAMN!

 

[cgtran]

he's good, but how did he do it?

 

[Howard]

He used the radioactive powers that made him a superhero. Refer to icon