Problem 9 (Beanie Baby Doll)

Three workers work 5 hours putting together beanie babies, where they are paid a fixed amount of money for each beanie baby assembled. Suppose all together the workers earn $470 where the first worker earns $200, the second worker assembles one beanie baby every 4 minutes, and the third worker receives $30 less than the second worker. All together, how many beanie babies do the three workers assemble ?

Solution

If we call p₁, p₂, and p₃ the pay of the three workers, respectively, then we are given the three conditions

p₁ + p₂ + p₃ = $470
p₁ = $200
p₂ = p₃ + 30

which means the three workers earn

p₁ = $200
p₂ = $150
p₃ = $120

We are also given the fact that the second worker can assemble one beanie baby every 4 minutes (or a total of 75 beanie babies in 5 hrs), and since this worker makes a total of $150, this says

(75 beanie babies) (pay per beanie baby) = $150
or
pay per beanie baby = $150/75 = $2

In other words, the second worker, as well as the others, make $2 for each beanie baby assembled. Hence, we have for the three workers

• Worker 1: beanie babies assembled = 200/2 = 100
  
• Worker 2: beanie babies assembled = 150/2 = 75
  
• Worker 3: beanie babies assembled = 120/2 = 60

and so the total number of beanie babies assembled is 235 beanie babies.

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Last modified on Tuesday, January 12, 1999