6.1: Computers for Kids
A program gives computers to families with school-aged children. They have a certain number of computers to distribute fairly between several families. How many computers should each family get?
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One month the program has 8 computers. The families have these numbers of school-aged children: 4, 2, 6, 2, 2.
- How many children are there in all?
- Counting all the children in all the families, how many children would use each computer? This is the number of children per computer. Call this number $A$.
- Fill in the third column of the table. Decide how many computers to give to each family if we use $A$ as the basis for distributing the computers.
family number of children number of computers, using $A$ row 1 Baum 4 row 2 Chu 2 row 3 Davila 6 row 4 Eno 2 row 5 Farouz 2 -
Check that 8 computers have been given out in all.
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The next month they again have 8 computers. There are different families with these numbers of children: 3, 1, 2, 5, 1, 8.
- How many children are there in all?
- Counting all the children in all the families, how many children would use each computer? This is the number of children per computer. Call this number $B$.
- Does it make sense that $B$ is not a whole number? Why?
- Fill in the third column of the table. Decide how many computers to give to each family if we use $B$ as the basis for distributing the computers.
family number of children number of computers, using $B$ number of computers, your way number of children per computer, your way row 1 Gray 3 row 2 Hernandez 1 row 3 Ito 2 row 4 Jones 5 row 5 Krantz 1 row 6 Lo 8 -
Check that 8 computers have been given out in all.
- Does it make sense that the number of computers for one family is not a whole number? Explain your reasoning?
- Find and describe a way to distribute computers to the families so that each family gets a whole number of computers. Fill in the fourth column of the table.
- Compute the number of children per computer in each family and fill in the last column of the table.
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Do you think your way of distributing the computers is fair? Explain your reasoning.