Solutions

Great job on today’s word problem! Are you ready to check your answer? Look below to see if your solution matches ours.

Lower Elementary:
Answer: 98 minutes or 1 hour and 38 minutes
Solution: Since each page takes 2 minutes to read, we can find the total amount of time the story by taking the number of pages and doubling it: 49 + 49 = 98. So, the story will take 98 minutes to read. Since an hour is 60 minutes, the story will take 1 hour and 98 – 60 = 38 minutes.

Upper Elementary:
Answer: Yes
Solution: Since there are 12 inches in a foot, Westley is 6 × 12 = 72 inches tall. He can reach objects 24 inches over his head, so he can reach up to 72 + 24 = 96 inches off the ground. The pitcher is only 90 inches off the ground, so Westley can easily reach it.

Middle School:
Answer: 1¹⁄₃%
Solution: To find out what fractional part of 37¹⁄₂ pounds a ¹⁄₂–pound rat is, we divide ¹⁄₂ by 37¹⁄₂. To do that, we’d multiply by the reciprocal: ¹⁄₂ × ²⁄₇₅ = ¹⁄₇₅. Since a percentage is out of 100, we multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 1¹⁄₃ to get 1¹⁄₃ out of 100. A rat is therefore 1¹⁄₃% the size of a rodent of unusual size.

Algebra and Up:
Answer: 8 ounces

Solution: Max and Valerie’s potion is 24 + 8 = 32 ounces in total, and 8 ÷ 32 = 25% of the mixture is unicorn snot. In order for the 8 ounces of unicorn snot to be 20% of the mixture, ⁸⁄_x = 20% and x = 40 ounces. So, since 40 – 32 = 8, 8 ounces of swamp water must be added to dilute the mixture to 20% unicorn snot.