The Kardashian family run a market stall selling popcorn.

The popcorn comes in three sizes, large, medium and small.

Jason Derulo is the youngest in the family and his job is to count the number of
containers of popcorn that they sell each day at the market.

On Saturday he records that they sold 74 containers.

The popcorn sells at a price of $2.50 for large, $1.95 for medium and $1.50 for small.
On this day they get $144.90

Jason was meant to record how many of each size container they used, so he is in
trouble for not counting properly. He does remember that there were 2 more small
containers than large sized ones.

Jason’s sister says not to worry, because she can work out how many of each container
there was from the information that they have.

On Sunday, they changed the price of medium sized containers of popcorn to $2. Jason
says that they sold 56 containers of popcorn. The total for the sales of popcorn that day
were $110. Jason says that the same number of large and small containers were sold
and expects his sister to work out how many of each sized container was sold.

Jason’s sister has some difficulty with this and tells Jason to think again about this.

Jason then says that perhaps there was four more small-sized container than large-
sized ones.
Task

1. Show how Jason’s sister can calculate the number of each

container that were sold on Saturday.

2. Show the difficulty that Jason’s sister has with the sales on
Sunday and explain what this means about the number of
different sized popcorn containers sold.

The quality of your discussions and reasoning, in particular with respect to any
decisions and assumptions that you make will determine your overall grade.
 Assessment Schedule: Mathematics and Statistics AS 91587

Assessment Name
Evidence/Judgements Evidence/Judgements for Evidence/Judgements for
for Achievement Achievement with Merit Achievement with
Excellence

Students are required Students are required to:

to: Students are required to:
Apply systems of
Apply systems of simultaneous equations,
Apply systems of
simultaneous equations, using using extended abstract
simultaneous
relational thinking, in solving thinking, in solving
equations in solving
problems problems.
problems.
The student has The student has The student has
demonstrated this by demonstrated relational demonstrated extended
 Selecting and using thinking by abstract thinking by
methods  Selecting and carrying out a  Devising a strategy to
 Demonstrating logical sequence of steps investigate or solve a
knowledge of OR problem OR
concepts and terms  Connecting different  Identifying relevant
 Communicating concepts or representations concepts in context OR
using appropriate OR  Developing a chain of
representations  Demonstrating logic reasoning or proof
understanding of concepts OR
For example a student OR  Forming a generalisation
may have  Forming and using a model AND
 Formed a system of AND  Using correct
simultaneous  Relating findings to a mathematical
equations context or communicating statements OR
 Solved the system of thinking using appropriate  Communicating
simultaneous mathematical statements. mathematical insight
equations
AND For example a student may
 Interpreted their For example a student may have developed a chain of
answer in context have logical reasoning by
 Stated the variables clearly by
x+ y + z = 74 x = number of large  Forming and solving all
2.5x + 1.95y + 1.5z = containers, y = number of sets of equations
144.9 medium sized containers (stating the variables
z = x + 2 or clearly),
 -x + z =2 and z = number of small
containers.
Giving 15 large  Solved the system of
containers, 42 medium simultaneous equations for
containers and 17 Saturday and interpreted
small containers. them sensibly, relating back
to the problem
Meaning the family have
sold 15 large containers, 42
medium sized containers
and 17 small containers
AND
 Investigated the new
situations for Sunday by
forming the three
equations for at least one
of the new situations
 AND identified and justified
the number of solutions.
x + y + z = 56
2.5x + 2y + 1.5z = 110
x - z =0
(Sunday 1)
with no solution for
Situation 1
OR x - z =4
(Sunday 2)
with multiple solutions for
Situation 2.
Final grades will be decided using professional judgement based on a holistic
examination of the evidence provided against the criteria in the Achievement Standard.
,
AND
and explained their
answers using the context
by stating that the
solutions must be both
positive and integer
AND
 identified and justified
the infinite nature of the
solutions for situation 2
for Sunday
By EITHER
giving a general solution
in parametric form
OR
listing at least TWO
solutions
AND
 Communicated their
thinking using correct
mathematical
statements
GEOMETRIC REPRESENTATION
Sunday Situation 1:
x + y + z = 56 (1) x 2 gives 2x + 2y + 2z = 112
2.5x + 2y + 1.5z = 110 (2)
x - z = 0 (3)

(2) – 2(1) gives 0.5x – 0.5z = -2 (4)

(3) – 2 (4) gives 0 = 4 which is not possible.

Equation (4) is a line that is parallel to equation (3) so there is no solution because
the planes intersect on parallel lines, so
never intersect

Small Medium Large

0 52 4
1 50 5
2 48 6
3 46 7
4 44 8
5 42 9
6 40 10
7 38 11
8 36 12
9 34 13
 10 32 14
Sunday Situation 2: 11 30 15
x + y + z = 56 (1) x 2 gives 2x + 2y + 2z = 12 28 16
112 13 26 17
2.5x + 2y + 1.5z = 110 (2) 14 24 18
x - z = -4 (3) 15 22 19
16 20 20
(2) – 2(1) gives 0.5x – 0.5z = -2 (4) 17 18 21
18 16 22
(3) – 2 (4) gives 0 = 0 which means there are multiple 19 14 23
solutions. 20 12 24
21 10 25
All the planes represented by the equations cross at 22 8 26
one line. 23 6 27
24 4 28
25 2 29
26 0 30

As long as all variables are positive and the number of large containers is 4 more
than the number of small containers and the total number of container is 56, this is
possible as shown in the Excel spreadsheet.
If the number of medium-sized containers is much greater than the small and large
containers, the highlighted values may be more likely.