Question

There are 6 blocks of jaggery, each of one kilogram. If one family requires one and a half kg jaggery every month, for how many families will these blocks suffice?

Answer 1

Hint: Find the total weight of jaggery by multiplying the number of blocks by the weight of each block. Since, each family requires one and a half kg of jaggery each month, divide the total weight of blocks by the quantity of jaggery required by each family every month.

Complete step-by-step answer:
We shall first calculate the total amount of jaggery that is present.
Since there are 6 blocks of jaggery and each block has one kilogram of jaggery, the total amount of jaggery will be equal to the jaggery in one block multiplied by the number of blocks.
The total amount of jaggery is
$6 \times 1 = 6{\text{ kg}}$
Thus, the total amount of jaggery that will be distributed among the families is 6kg.
Let the number of families for which this amount of jaggery will suffice be $x$.
Since each family requires one and a half kilogram of jaggery, the total amount of jaggery consumed by $x$ families will be $1.5x$.
We can now equate the total amount of jaggery present in the blocks to the amount of jaggery required by the families.
$6 = 1.5x$
Divide the equation throughout by 1.5 to find the value of $x$
$
  \dfrac{6}{{1.5}} = \dfrac{{1.5}}{{1.5}}x \\
  \dfrac{{6 \times 10}}{{15}} = x \\
  x = 4 \\
$
Since the value of $x$ is four, this implies that 6 blocks of jaggery will suffice for 4 families.

Note: It is important to find the total quantity of jaggery from the given number of blocks. Many students make a mistake in dividing by 1.5. Since, 1.5 has one place to the right of the decimal point, remove the decimal and multiply the numerator by 10 to solve the question.