Question

If a box of sweets is divided among 24 children, they will get 5 sweets each. How many would each get, if the number of the children is reduced by 4?

Answer 1

Number of remaining children = 24 - 4 = 20 
Let the number of sweets which each of the 20 students will get, be x. 
The following table is obtained.

Number of students	24	20
Number of sweets	5	x

If the number of students is lesser, then each student will get more number of sweets.
Since this is a case of inverse proportion,
\(24 × 5 = 20 × x\)
\(x= \frac{24 × 5}{20}\)
Hence, each student will get 6 sweets.

Answer 2

As the number of children increases, the number of sweets each child gets decreases.
So, \(x \times y = \text{constant}\)

Given:\( x_1 = 24\) and \(y_1 = 5\)
\(x_2 = 20\) and \(y_2 = ?\)

Since\( x_1 \times y_1 = x_2 \times y_2\)
\(y_2 = \frac{x_1 \times y_1}{x_2} = \frac{24 \times 5}{20} = 6\)
So, each child gets 6 sweets.