Lower Elementary
Question: Ella can type 50 words a minute. How many words can she type in 3 1/2 minutes?
Answer: 175 words
Note: Since Ella can type 50 words in one minute, to find the amount of words she can type in 3 1/2 minutes count 50 for each minute 50 + 50 + 50 = 150 and half of 50 for the 1/2 minute which is 25. The total number of words is 150 + 25 = 175 words
Upper Elementary
Question: Annie looked into a dog park and observed the dogs and their owners. She counted 50 legs. With a total of 16 “beings” (dogs and/or owners), how many dogs and how many owners are in the dog park?
Answer: 9 dogs and 7 owners
Note: Annie is not in the dog park. Use the guess and check method.
Middle School
Question: Find the smallest four-digit whole number in which the digit in the hundred’s place is twice as much as the digit in the thousand’s place; the digit in the ten’s place is the product of the digits in the the thousand’s place and the hundreds place; and the digit in the one’s place is the sum of the other three digits.
Answer: 1225
Note: Each digit must be a whole number, so in order to make it the smallest number possible the digit in the thousand’s place must be a 1, which means the digit in the hundred’s place must be a 2 (1 x 2). That makes the digit in the ten’s place a 2 (1 x 2) and the digit in the one’s place must be 5 (1 + 2 + 2).
Algebra and Up
Question: The sum of the test scores a student earned in a class is divided by the the average test score for the tests, giving the result, x. What does the xrepresent?
Answer: The number of tests the student took in the class.
Note: The sum of the test scores are all the test scores the student earned in the class added together. The average test score is the arithmetic mean for all the the tests. In order to find what x represents use the equation for finding the average (arithmetic mean).
The equation that defines the average in this relationship is:
sum of test scores / number of tests = average test score.
Using algebra we can rewrite the equation so that the sum of the test scores is divided by the average test score
sum of test scores / number of tests = average test score
number of tests * (sum of test scores / number of tests) = average test score * number of tests
sum of test scores = average test score * number of tests
sum of test scores / average test score = (average test score * number of tests) / average test score
sum of test scores / average test score = number of tests
