Arithmetic Grade Six

Lesson One Hundred Thirty-seven: Money Stack

Sometimes in word problems you are given extraneous information. For instance, consider this example: 

	There are 5 boxes and in each box there are 2 bags
	of candy and 7 booklets. In each bag there are 5
	marbles and 3 jelly beans. How many marbles are there
	in all the bags in all the boxes?
First of all, we need to decide what information given to us in this problem is necessary to solve the problem and what information is extraneous (not necessary to solve the problem). 

	NECESSARY INFORMATION		EXTRANEOUS INFORMATION
	 5 boxes			 7 booklets per box
	 2 bags	per box			 3 jelly beans per bag
	 5 marbles per bag
Once we sort the necessary from the extraneous information, solving the problem isn't very difficult: 

	  5 boxes x 2 bags per box x 5 marbles per bag = 50 marbles

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