Problem 12 · 2021 Math Kangaroo
Medium
Logic & Word Problems
careful-counting
Julia has two pots with flowers, as shown. She keeps the flowers exactly where they are. She buys more flowers and puts them in the pots. After that, each pot has the same number of each type of flower. What is the smallest number of flowers she needs to buy?
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Answer: D — 8
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Hint 1 of 3
Look at one type of flower at a time and compare the two pots.
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Hint 2 of 3
Whichever pot has fewer of that type needs to be filled up to match the other.
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Hint 3 of 3
Add up all the missing flowers across both pots.
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Approach: match each flower type to the larger count
- For each kind of flower, both pots must end up with the bigger of the two amounts they already have.
- For every type, count how many are missing in the pot that is short, and add those up.
- Adding all the missing flowers gives 8 extra flowers to buy.
Mark:
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