Lower Elementary:
Question: One of the world’s largest flowering plant is the corpse flower and it grows to a height of 6 feet. If Brittany is 4 feet and 5 inches tall, how much taller is the full grown corpse flower?
Answer: 1 foot and 7 inches
Solution: To solve this problem, we need to find how far it is from 4 feet and 5 inches up to 6 feet. There are 12 inches in 1 foot. We already know that Brittany height is at 4 feet 5 inches, we need to find how many inches do we need to add to get to 5 feet. To find this we take 12 inches and subtract 5 inches which tell us we need 7 inches to get to 5 feet. Now that we are at 5 feet, to get to 6 feet, we need to add one more foot. Altogether that is 1 foot 7 inches.
Upper Elementary:
Question: William has 2 quarters, 4 dimes, a nickel, and 5 pennies. Jennifer has 3 quarters, 5 dimes, 4 nickels, and 2 pennies. Benny has 7 quarters, 3 dimes, and 3 nickels. How much less money does Benny have then William and Jennifer combined?
Answer: $0.27 or 27¢
Solution: First we need to make sure that this problem satisfies the Law of SAMEness. In order to do this we need to find how much money each person has so that everything is in the same denomination or name. William has $1.00 (2Q + 4D + 1N + 5P = 50¢ + 40¢ + 5¢ + 5¢), Jennifer has $1.47 (3Q + 5D + 4N + 2P = 75¢ + 50¢ + 20¢ + 2¢), and Benny has a total of $2.20 (7Q + 3D + 2N = 175¢ + 30¢ + 15¢). Now we sum up the money William and Jennifer have and then find the difference from their total up to Benny’s total.
William + Jennifer = $1.00 + $1.47 = $2.47
Benny – (William + Jennifer) = $2.20 – $2.47 = $0.27 or 27¢
Middle School:
Question: To make 24 rice crispy treat squares you need the following ingredients:
¼ of a cup of butter
10 oz of marshmallows
6 cups of rice
How much of each ingredient is needed to make 36 rice crispy treat squares?
Answer: ⅜ of a cup of butter, 15 oz of marshmallows, and 9 cups of rice.
Solution: The recipe makes 24 rice crispy treat squares, but we need 36 which 12 more than 24 or half of 24. So, we need to halve each ingredient and add it to the original amounts.
Half of 6 cups of rice is 3 cups of rice, so we need 9 cups of rice (6 + 3 = 9).
Half of 10 oz of marshmellows is 5 oz of marshmellows, so we need 15 oz of marshmellows (10 + 5 = 15).
Half of ¼ of a cup of butter is â…›, so we need â…œ of a cup of butter (¼ + â…› = 2/8 + â…› = â…œ)
Algebra and Up:
Question: A 1,960 square foot rectangle can fit exactly 40 identical squares inside of it. What are the side lengths of these squares?
Answer: 7 ft
Solution: By dividing 1,960 by 40 we find the area of each square.
1960 ft2 ÷ 40 = 49 ft2
Because each square has an area of 49 ft2, to find the side length we take the square root of the area.
√49 = 7 ft.
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