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A family of four siblings found a jar containing 60 pieces of candy.
They agree to share the candy equally, with each sibling eating one piece of candy per day.
No one else eats from the jar.
(a) How many pieces of candy will be left in the jar at the end of the first day?
(b) If they start eating from the jar on a Wednesday, on what day of the week will they eat the last piece of candy?
(a) Since each sibling eats 1 piece of candy and there are 4 siblings, this means 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 or 1 × 4 = 4 pieces of candy are eaten from the jar each day. Since the jar started with 60 pieces of candy, this means it will have 60 – 4 = 56 pieces left at the end of the first day.
(b) We can make a table to keep track of how many pieces of candy are left in the jar at the end of each day, knowing that the siblings eat 4 pieces of candy a day. From part (a), we know that there are 56 pieces left at the end of the first Wednesday.
| Day | Candy Left at End of Day |
|---|---|
| Wednesday | 56 |
| Thursday | 52 |
| Friday | 48 |
| Saturday | 44 |
| Sunday | 40 |
| Monday | 36 |
| Tuesday | 32 |
| Wednesday | 28 |
| Thursday | 24 |
| Friday | 20 |
| Saturday | 16 |
| Sunday | 12 |
| Monday | 8 |
| Tuesday | 4 |
| Wednesday | 0 |
From this table, we can see that they will eat the last piece of candy on a Wednesday, exactly two weeks after they started.