Lower Elementary:
Question: Mr. Baker has chickens on his farm. He raised 10 chickens on his own. His friend gave him 15 more chickens. If each chicken lays 4 eggs, how many eggs does Mr. Baker have in total?
Answer: 100 eggs
Solution: First, we need to find the total number of chickens that Mr. Baker has. 10 + 15 = 25. He has 25 chickens in all. Since each chicken lays 4 eggs, to find the total number of eggs add 25, 4 times. It is helpful to think of quarters to help count by 25; 25, 50, 75, 100. Mr. Baker will have a total of 100 eggs.
Upper Elementary:
Question: A candy factory makes bite sized candies and puts them in bags. Each bag of candy must contain 92 pieces of candy. The factory can make and bag 736 pieces of candy in 10 minutes. How long will it take for the factory to make 24 bags of candy?
Answer: 30 minutes
Solution: First, find how many bags the factory can make in 10 minutes. To do that, divide the number of candies it can make in 10 minutes by the number of candies in each bag. 736 ÷ 92 = 8. The factory can make 8 bags of candy in 10 minutes. Since there are 3 groups of 8 in 24, to get from 8 bags to 24 bags, we multiply by 3. This means we will have 3 groups of 10 minutes. 10 minutes, 3 times is 30 minutes. It will take 30 minutes for the factory to make 24 bags of candy.
Middle School:
Question: Fred, Neil, Victoria, and Kayla all go to a fancy dinner. The bill came to $120. They decide they want to leave a 15% tip. How much should each person tip if they decide to split the tip evenly?
Answer: $4.50
Solution: To find out how much they are going to tip, find 15% of 120. One way to do this is to break 120 into 100 and 20, find 15% of each, and add them together. Percent means for each hundred.
15% of 100 is 15.
20 is one fifth of 100, so find a fifth of 15 to get 15% of 20. A fifth of 15 is 3.
Now add the two parts. 15 + 3 = 18. The friends are going to tip a total of $18. To find how much each of them will pay, divide the total tip by 4. 18 ÷ 4 = 4.5. Each person pays $4.50.
Algebra and Up:
Question: Three shirts and two sweaters cost $76. Four shirts and one sweater cost $68. How much would one shirt and one sweater cost separately?
Answer: One shirt is $12 and one sweater is $20
Solution: Let x represent the cost of one shirt and let y represent the cost of one sweater. Using the information in the problem we have the following two equations:
(1) 3x + 2y = 76
(2) 4x + y = 68
One way to solve this system of equations is to use elimination. If we multiply the second equation by – 2, we have:
3x + 2y = 76
-8x – 2y = -136
Adding the 2 equations together, the y variable cancels:
-5x = -60
x = 12
Now substitute 12 for x into either equation and solve for y. Plugging it into the second equation, we have:
4(12) + y = 68
48 + y = 68
y = 20
One shirt is $12 and one sweater is $20.
