Watermelon one is by 2 kilograms lighter than watermelon two and 5 times lighter than watermelon three. Watermelons one and three together are 3 times heavier than watermelon two. Find the weight of each watermelon.
Responses (1)
In math you are not privileged to assume meanings that are not stated. "Five times lighter" has no meaning: you have to assume something with no basis.
And if you don't like my answer, feel free to follow your own advice and keep it to yourself.
Thanks for replying back and answering the question. :)
" '5 times lighter ' has no meaning" (?); well, would it have helped to say: "5 times less heavy" as #Jewels doesn't complain about "3 times heavier"? Or, as weight is environment dependent and melons on the moon are even 6 times lighter than on earth (oops!) , perhaps he'd prefer sticking to the masses.
I've seen questions posed in the mathematics topic, which were 5 times less accurate than this one. This was an inaccurate sentence as inaccuracy has no unit we could agree upon. But the relations given concerning masses of melons are unambiguous at least to someone who has sufficient command of the English language.
@jackofall: We should keep a sense of proportion, though. I've read quite some answers of #Jewels, and more often than not these answers stand out due to a feature rarely found here: showing the method, how a solution is obtained. In this respect your answer lacks "verbosity" though it is correct.
"1/5 the weight" is a mathematically defined statement. "Five times lighter" is not. You can assume what is meant, but that doesn't mean it's right. Do not confuse idle chat with math.
For those who like to use terms such as "a is five times lighter than b", (and then claim it must mean "a is 20% the weight of b") my question is, "What does "a is one time(s) lighter than b" mean, or compute to? Zero? If so, five times lighter must compute to negative 4 times the weight of b, not 20%. (And if not zero, then what?) I conclude that "5 times lighter" not only has no clear meaning... it is also a lazy person's use of language. The term "lighter than" is used to accentuate just that: "This thing is so much lighter than..." If a is 20% the weight of b, say that. "A is lighter than b; it is only 1/5 (or 20%) the weight of b.
Five times lighter quite obviously means its mass is a fifth of the first melon.
Your answer is not even slightly helpful, if you don't know the answer then why leave a message at all? (Is it just the points? For shame!)
Watermelon 1 (2 kilograms) Is two kilos less than number 2, is a fifth the mass of number 3. Therefore;
Watermelon 2 (4 kilograms) Two more kilos than 1.
Watermelon 3 (10 kilograms) Five times the mass of 1.
Simple!