Lower Elementary:
Question: A candle wick burns 1 inch every 15 minutes. If it is 2:00 and a candle wick is 6 inches long, what time will it be when the candle burns out?
Answer: 3:30
Solution: 1 inch represents 15 minutes. Since the wick is 6 inches, we have to count by 15, 6 times to see how long the candle will burn for. 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90. The candle will burn for 90 minutes. Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, 90 minutes is the same as 1 hour and 30 minutes. 1 hour and 30 minutes past 2:00 is 3:30. So, it will be 3:30 when the candle burns out.
Upper Elementary:
Question: Franceska ordered a variety of cookies. Half of the cookies she ordered were chocolate chip, a fourth of the cookies she bought were cinnamon sugar, and the remaining 12 cookies were peanut butter. How many total cookies did Franceska order?
Answer: 48 cookies
Solution: Since we know how many peanut butter cookies Franceska ordered, we need to find the fractional part of her order that is cinnamon sugar. Half of the cookies are chocolate chip and a fourth of the cookies are cinnamon sugar. 1/2 + 1/4 = 2/4 + 1/4 = 3/4. This means that the peanut butter cookies represent 1/4 of the total cookies (1 – 3/4 = 4/4 – 3/4 = 1/4). If 1/4 of the total cookies represents 12 cookies, then there are a total of 48 cookies since there are 4 fourths in a whole.
Middle School:
Question: If Harold can ride a bike at a speed of 8 miles per hour, how many feet can he travel in 30 minutes?
Answer: 21,120 feet
Solution: One way to solve this problem is to first see how many miles Harold can travel in 30 minutes and then covert it to feet. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so there are 30 minutes in half an hour. So, if Harold travels at 8 miles per hour, he can travel 4 miles in half an hour. There are 5,280 feet in 1 mile, so to find how many there are in 4 miles, multiply by 4. 5,280 × 4 = 21,120. Harold can travel 21,120 feet in 30 minutes.
Algebra and Up:
Question: Jordan is fundraising money for a local charity. His original pledge was $400. He earned 80% of his goal relatively quickly, so he decided to raise his goal by 40%. How much more money does Jordan have to fundraise to reach his new goal?
Answer: $240
Solution: One way to solve this problem is to first solve for how much Jordan has currently and then find out how much his new goal is. To find how much he has earned so far, we need to find 80% of 400. Recall that percent means for every hundred. So to find 80% of 400, we can multiply 80 by 4. 80 × 4 = 320. Jordan has already fundraised $320. Now, we need to find what his new fundraising goal is. One way to find this is to find 40% of 400 and then add that to 400. 40% of 400 is the same as multiplying 40 by 4. 40 × 4 = 160. Now, we add $160 to his original goal of $400. $160 + $400 = $560. Since he has already fundraised $320, he now needs to fundraise $240 (560 – 320 = 240).
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