Question

Please help! Tim and Jane both work at a company that sells boxes of breakfast cereal. The boxes of cereal cost £3.00 and the amount of cereal in each box weighs 160g The company wants to have a special offer Here is Tim's idea: Put 25% more cereal in the box and do not change the price Jane's idea is: Reduce the price and do not change the amount of cereal in the box Jane wants her idea to give the same value of money as Tim's idea By what percentage does she need to reduce the price?

Answer 1

Answer: Jane needs to reduce the price by 20%

Step-by-step explanation: The first thing to note is the original price of the cereal and that is given as £3 for every 160 grams.

The change proposed by Tim is as follows;

Put 25% more cereal in the box (and do not change the price). That means 160 g plus 25%. Mathematically, this can be expressed as;

New weight = 160 + (160 * 25%)

New weight = 160 + (160 * 0.25)

New weight = 160 + 40

New weight = 200

Hence, Tim's idea would result in a cereal box with 200 grams that still cost £3. At this rate, each gram would cost

1 gram = Price / Total grams

1 gram = 3/200

1 gram = 0.015

However, Jane has proposed that the amount of cereal in the box should not be changed, which means the box of cereals should remain 160 grams. The price should be reduced to give the same value as Tim's idea. This means 160 g of cereals should now sell for £0.015 per gram. That would bring the price of 160 g to,

1 gram = 0.015

160 grams = 0.015 * 160

160 grams = 2.4

With Jane's proposal, a 160 g box of cereal should now be sold at £2.4 each. That is a reduction of £0.6

Therefore, the percentage reduction can be calculated as follows;

% decrease = (0.6/3) * 100

% decrease = (1/5) * 100

% decrease = 20

From the results above, Jane should reduce the price (£3 per 160 g) by 20%.