Lower Elementary:
Question: Megan starting baking a turkey at 11:30 AM. It was in the oven for 4 hours. It was then taken out for 5 minutes to be seasoned. It was placed back in the oven for 2 and a half hours. What time was the turkey taken out of the oven the second time?
Answer: 6:05 PM
Solution: One way to solve this problem is to show the elapsed time. It started at 11:30 AM and was in the oven for 4 hours. That means it was taken out of the oven the first time at 3:30 PM. It was seasoned for 5 minutes, so it was put back into the oven at 3:35 PM. It was baking for 2 and a half hours, so it was taken out of the oven at 6:05 PM.
Upper Elementary:
Question: Wendy is making a family dish for Thanksgiving. The recipe calls for 3 cups of ground beef, 6 cups of mashed potatoes, 2 cups of corn, and diced yam. If the ground beef makes up 1/4 of the dish, how many cups of diced yam are in the dish?
Answer: 1 cup
Solution: First, we need to find to total number of cups in the dish. To do this, we will look at the ground beef part of the recipe since we know the fractional part of the ground beef. 1/4 of the dish is 3 cups. That means that 2/4 would be 6 cups, 3/4 would be 9 cups, and 4/4 would be 12 cups. So the dish has a total of 12 cups. To find how many cups of diced yams there are, subtract each of the other parts from the whole. 12 – 3 – 6 – 2 = 1. There is 1 cup of diced yams in the dish.
Middle School:
Question: Mark is trying to find the cost of the drinks he needs to buy for Thanksgiving dinner. He calculated that a 6-pack of soda costs $4.50, a gallon of milk costs $3, and a gallon of juice costs $3.50. Mark buys 3 6-packs of soda, 3 gallons of juice, and milk. If he spent a total of $36 on drinks, how many gallons of milk did he buy?
Answer: 4 gallons of milk
Solution: First, we need to find the total amount spent on soda and juice. One 6-pack of soda costs $4.50, so 3 6-packs of soda costs $13.50 (4.50 + 4.50 + 4.50 = 13.50). One gallon of juice costs $3.50, so 3 gallons of juice costs $10.50 (3.50 + 3.50 + 3.50 = 10.50). That means the total spent on soda and juice is $24 (13.50 + 10.50 = 24). Mark spent a total of $36 on all the drinks, so he spent $12 on milk (36 – 24 = 12). One gallon of milk costs $3, so Mark bought 4 gallons of milk (12 ÷ 3 = 4).
Algebra and Up:
Question: A family Thanksgiving dinner has 10 people. At the end of the meal, every person hugs everyone else once. How many hugs were given at the end of the Thanksgiving dinner?
Answer: 45 hugs
Solution: The first person hugs the 9 other members. Since everyone has hugged the first person, no one else needs to hug the first person again. So the second person hugs the remaining 8 people at the dinner. Now, everyone has hugged the first and second person, so no one else needs to hug the first or second person. So the third person hugs the remaining 7 people at dinner. This pattern continues until every member has been hugged once. That means there were 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 hugs. Notice that 9 + 1 = 10, 8 + 2 = 10, 7 + 3 = 10, 6 + 4 = 10, and there is 5 left. So 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 45. There were 45 hugs given at the dinner.
(925) 292-8854
