Question

Devon has 14 steel balls of equal weight. If he puts 8 of them in one pan of a balance, and the rest along with a weight of 20 grams in the other pan, the pans balance each other. Which equation can be used to find the weight of each steel ball?

Answer 1

14-8=6, so 8 balls balance with 6 balls and 20 grams. From this you know that 2 balls=20 grams, simply divide this by 2 to get the weight of one ball which will weigh 10 grams.

Answer 2

Okay so first to solve this lets set up our equation...

Devon has 14 balls of equal weight
14

8 of them go in one pan
14 - 8 = 6

6 goes in another pan along with a weight of 20 grams

So if we assume each ball is 10 grams then the 6 plus 20 grams would equal 8 balls.

This would balance it out.

8 balls of 10g - 6 balls of 10g and a 20g weight

So each ball would weigh 10 grams

Hope this helped. Have a great night!