CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' Sch 2009 P6 SA1 Paper 2 Q9

At a shop, the ratio of the number of stalks of roses to the number of stalks of carnation was 4:5. Mrs Tan sold 176 stalks of carnations and was left with thrice as many stalks of roses as carnations. How many stalks of carnations did she have at first?

Solution

* 'Before' x3 and 'After' x4 to make the Roses have an equal number of units of 12 each because no roses were sold.

Carnations before --> 15 units
Carnations after --> 4 units
15 units - 4 units --> 176 (carnations sold)
11 units --> 176
1 unit --> 176 divided by 11 = 16
15 units --> 15 x 16 = 240

Answer: 240 carnations

Printer Friendly Version