Welcome back to another #WPW mathletes!! One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to find a peaceful spot outside to read a good book. I personally loved finding a nice spot in the shade when there was a nice breeze and could spend hours reading. This week's math problems are actually all about the math of reading!
Lower Elementary:
Question: George plans to read all of Chapter 4 in the book he’s reading tonight. Chapter 4 starts on page 75 and ends on page 100. How many pages does George plan to read tonight?
Upper Elementary:
Question: Yesterday, Max read half of a book. Today, he read a third of what was left. What fractional part of the whole book is left for Max to read?
Middle School:
Question: Amelia can read 150 words per minute. The book she’s reading is 450 pages long and has 250 words on each page. How many hours will it take Amelia to read the whole book?
Algebra and Up:
Question: There are 3 books in a series. Altogether, the series is 1,155 pages long. Book 1 is the shortest—16 pages shorter than Book 3. Book 2 is 1 page longer than Book 3. How many pages long is each book?
When you're ready for the answers, go ahead and check below!!
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Lower Elementary:
Answer: 26 pages
Solution: First, we find how far apart page 100 is from page 75: 100 – 75 = 25. Next, we need to add 1 page because finding the difference counts page 100 but not page 75. So, 25 + 1 = 26 pages.
Upper Elementary:
Answer: One Third
Solution: After Max reads half of the book, there’s one half left. A third of a half is a sixth, so Max has read 1/2 + 1/6 = 3/6 + 1/6 = 4/6 = 2/3 of the book. That means he has 3/3 – 2/3 = 1/3 of the book left to read.
Middle School:
Answer: 121/2
Solution: Amelia reads at a rate of 150 words/minute × 1 page/250 words = 150 pages/250 minutes. We could reduce this rate further, but since 450 pages is a multiple of 150 pages, it’s easier not to. To read 450 pages, she needs to read 150 pages, 3 times. This means she reads for 250 minutes, 3 times, or 750 minutes. To find out how many hours that is we divide: 750 ÷ 60 = 121/2.
Algebra and Up:
Answer: Book 1 is 374 pages, Book 2 is 391 pages, and Book 3 is 390 pages.
Solution: Let’s call the books A, B, and C. We can create a series of equations:
Thanks for hanging out with us Mathletes and we hope to see you back next week!
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