If John (who weighs 136 pounds) buys 144 GUM DVDs, and Sally (who weighs 121 pounds) buys 320 GUM DVDs and together they get on a camel with a useful load capacity of only 300 pounds, who would have to throw away more DVDs given that John and Sally decided that the fairest way to handle the situation is by bringing their individual weights down to 150 pounds each?

Note: Each GUM DVD was bought this week at Penguin Magic so it includes 2 packs of Orbitz gum. The weight of the Orbitz must be calculated in addition to the DVDs.

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Can we have multiple of tries? or is it just one post per each person?

You can update your answer, but since there should be only one *right* answer, you should only need one.

Is this a riddle or a math problem?

This is pretty much a straight math problem. If something is unclear, feel free to ask.

What is the weight of the DVD and Gum? Without that knowledge, there is no answer. Also. It would be Sally anyways, because she bought more. So, in theory, she would drop, until equilibrium is reached. At that point, it wouldn't matter how much each weighed, as it is a logic problem. So, besides for 2nd class philosophy, if each DVD and Orbit Gum weighed .55 lbs or more, Sally would have to let go of more, as she would have to drop more than John.
{300-[136+121(=257)]}/[144+320(=464)]=0.55387931034482758620689655172414
Answer=Sally
Thank you Acar! If I did not get it right, which I am positive I did as it was not technically entirely a math problem, please inform me on exactly what I did wrong.
~Ian

Here's my answer:

PREWORK

John=136 lbs
+144 DVDs

Sally=121 lbs
+320 DVDS

Camel=300 lb capacity

An orbit 12 pack weighs 1.8 lbs. Divide 1.8 by 12 and get .15 lbs for each pack of gum.

A DVD with case weighs .34 lbs.

2 packs of gum each weighing .15 lbs each are really .30 lbs together, plus the .34 lb pack of gum make each unit .49 lbs. (A unit is 1 DVD plus 2 packs of gum)

WORK:

John=144 X .49= 70.56 lbs
70.56 + 136=206.58
TOTAL= 206.58 lbs

Sally=320 X .49= 156.80 lbs
156.8 + 121= 277.80 lbs

JOHN
206.58
-150.00
156.58 lbs

SALLY
156.80
-150.00
68.80 lbs

(Now their total weights would have to remove what was calculated above to get to 150 lbs)

JOHN
206.58
-156.58
50 lbs of DVDs

SALLY
156.80
-68.80
88 lbs of DVDs

I am semi confident that Sally would have to throw away (or sell on eBay) more DVDs than John.

EDIT: [edited] he beat me to it lol. Oh well, it was still fun trying. Maybe one of us got it wrong. Who knows

Sally would have to drop more GUM DVDs, because John has to drop 14 pounds worth of DVDs (150 pounds - 136 pounds) while Sally has to drop 29 pounds (150 pounds - 121) worth of DVDs. Now, supposing a GUM DVD weighs around 4 oz. (2-3 oz. for the DVD, ~1oz. for the gum) John would have to drop 56 DVDs while Sally has to drop 116 DVDs.

John: 144 DVDs - [14 pounds x (16 oz./4 oz.)] = 56 GUM DVDs
Sally: 320 DVDs - [29 pounds x (16 oz./4 oz.)] = 116 GUM DVDs

What I should clarify, is that Sally and John each need to weigh 150 pounds including their own copies of the [DVD plus 2 packs of gum]. So if someone weighed 149 pounds and had 5 copies of the DVD + gum, they may have to get rid of 2 units.

Part of what is left to you is finding out exactly how much a pack of Orbit weighs, and how much a standard DVD weighs (I gotta make it interesting )

I did that

Am I the only one who saw this portion?

Each GUM DVD was bought this week at Penguin Magic so it includes 2 packs of Orbitz gum. The weight of the Orbitz must also be calculated.

Im guessing you must actually figure out the weight of the gum and the wieght of a DVD plus case. I think he might actually want you to figure it out for real. Not assume the weight.
But thats just how I read it... so... only he can answer.

Does this include casing? What type of Case if there is one? What type of DVD printing? There is only one way to know this, and that is if we had the DVD...
~Ian

and the gum...

I know the weight of the gum...
~Ian

Your making it way too complicated.. yes; he means a STANDARD DVD CASE AND DVD. What does the average dvd case+dvd wiegh. Go get one of your movies and weigh it.

This problem isnt that hard.