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He is 15 years older than twice Al's age. How old is Al? We can begin by assigning a variable to what we're asked to find. Here this is Al's age, so let Al's age = x. We also know from the information given in the problem that 45 is 15 more than twice Al's age. How can we translate this from words into mathematical symbols? What is twice Al's age? Well, Al's age is x, so twice Al's age is 2x, and 15 more than twice Al's age is 15 + 2x. That equals 45, right? Now we have an equation in terms of one variable that we can solve for x: 45 = 15 + 2x. original statement of the problem: subtract 15 from each side: divide both sides by 2: Since x is Al's age and x = 15, this 45 = 15 + 2x 30 = 2x 15 = x means that Al is 15 years old.
It's always a good idea to check our answer: twice Al's age is 2 x 15: 30 15 more than 30 is 15 + 30: 45 This should be the age of Al's father, and it is. Solving a problem using one or two variables: How old is Karen? Karen is twice as old as Lori. Three years from now, the sum of their ages will be 42. How old is Karen? One-variable solution: We'll let Lori's age be x. We can set up a chart: now in 3 years
Karen 2x 2x + 3 Lori x x + 3 The sum of their ages in 3 years will be 42, so we have: (2x + 3) + (x + 3) = 42 3x + 6 = 42 3x = 36 x = 12 If Lori is 12, Karen is 24; in three years they will be 15 and 27, and the sum of their ages will be 42.
Isolate variable x
Example 3: Johns father is 5 times older than John and John is twice as old as his sister Alice. In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58. How old is John now? Solution: Step 1: Set up a table. age now age in 2 yrs
Johns father John Alice Step 2: Fill in the table with information given in the question. Johns father is 5 times older than John and John is twice as old as his sister Alice. In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58. How old is John now? Let x be Johns age now. Add 2 to get the ages in 2 yrs. age now 5x x age in 2 yrs 5x + 2 x+2
Write the new relationship in an equation using the ages in 2 yrs. In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58.
"Age" Word Problems (page 1 of 2) In January of the year 2000, I was thirteen times as old as
my son William. In January of 2009, I was four times as old as him. How old was my son in January of 2000? Obviously, in "real life" you'd have walked up to my kid and and asked him how old he was, and he'd have proudly held up three grubby fingers, but that won't help you on your homework. Here's how you'd figure out his age for class: First, name things and translate the English into math: Let "E " stand for my age in 2000, and let "W " stand for William's age. Then E = 13W in the year 2000. In the year 2009 (nine years after the year 2000), William and I will each be nine years older, so our ages will be E + 9 and W + 9. Also, I was four times as old as William was, so E + 9 = 4(W + 9) = 4W + 36. This gives you two equations, each having two variables:
E = 13W E + 9 = 4W + 36
If you know how to solve systems of equations, you can proceed with those techniques. Otherwise, you can use the first equation to simplify the second: since E = 13W, plug "13W " in for "E " in the second equation:
This exercise refers not only to their present ages, but also to both their ages last year and their ages in three years, so labelling will be very important. I will label Miguel's present age as "m" and his grandfather's present age as "g". Then m + g = 68. Miguel's age "last year" was m 1. His grandfather's age "in three more years" will be g + 3. The grandfather's "age three years from now" is six times Miguel's "age last year" or, in math:
g + 3 = 6(m 1)
This gives me two equations with two variables:
m + g = 68 g + 3 = 6(m 1)
Solving the first equation, I get m = 68 g. (Note: It's okay to solve for "g = 68 m", too. The problem will work out a bit differently in the middle, but the answer will be the same at the end.) I'll plug "68 g" into the second equation in place of "m":
g + 3 = 6m 6 g + 3 = 6(68 g) 6 g + 3 = 408 6g 6
+ g = 68, then m =
One-half of Heather's age two years from now plus one-third of her age three years ago is twenty years. How old is she now?
This problem refers to Heather's age two years in the future and three years in the past. So I'll pick a variable and label everything clearly: age now: H age two years from now: H + 2 age three years ago: H 3 Now I need certain fractions of these ages: one-half of age two years from now: ( 1/2 )(H + 2) = H/2 + one-third of age three years ago: ( 1/3 )(H 3) = H/3 1
The sum of these two numbers is twenty, so I'll add them and set this equal to 20:
H
If the first painter can do the entire job in twelve hours and the second painter can do it in eight hours, then (this here is the trick!) the first guy can do 1/12 of the job per hour, and the second guy can do 1/8 per hour. How much then can they do per hour if they work together?
To find out how much they can do together per hour, I add together what they can do individually per hour: 1/12 + 1/8 = 5 /24. They can do 5/24 of the job per hour. Now I'll let "t" stand for how long they take to do the job together. Then they can do 1/t per hour, so 5/24 = 1/t. Flip the equation, and you get that t = 24/5 = 4.8 hours. That is: hours to complete job: first painter: 12 second painter: 8 together: t completed per hour: first painter: 1/12 second painter: 1/8 together: 1/t adding their labor:
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They can complete the job together in just under five hours. As you can see in the above example, "work" problems commonly create rational equations. But the equations themselves are usually pretty simple. One pipe can fill a pool 1.25 times faster than a second pipe. When both pipes are opened, they fill the pool in five hours. How long would it take to fill the pool if only the slower pipe is used?
Convert to rates: hours to complete job: fast pipe: f slow pipe: 1.25f together: 5 completed per hour: fast pipe: 1/f slow pipe: 1/1.25f together: 1/5 adding their labor:
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/f + 1/1.25f = 1/5
5 + 5/1.25 = f 5+4=f=9
Then 1.25f =
If you're not sure how I derived the rate for the slow pipe, think about it this way: If someone goes twice as fast as you, then you take twice as long as he does; if he goes three times as fast, then you take three times as long. In this case, if he goes 1.25 times as fast, then you take 1.25 times as long.
We have the original number (20) and the comparative number (30). The unknown in this problem is the rate or percentage. Since the statement is "(thirty) is (some percentage) of (twenty)", then the variable stands for the percentage, and the equation is:
30 = (x)(20) 30 20 = x = 1.5
Since x stands for a percentage, I need to remember to convert this decimal back into a percentage:
1.5 = 150%
Thirty is 150% of 20. What is 35% of 80?
Here we have the rate (35%) and the original number (80); the unknown is the comparative number which constitutes 35% of 80. Since the exercise statement is "(some number) is (thirty-five percent) of (eighty)", then the variable stands for a number and the equation is:
x = (0.35)(80) x = 28
Twenty-eight is 35% of 80.
45% of what is 9?
Here we have the rate (45%) and the comparative number (9); the unknown is the original number that 9 is 45% of. The statement is "(nine) is (forty-five percent) of (some number)", so the variable stands for a number, and the equation is:
9 = (0.45)(x) 9 0.45 = x = 20
Nine is 45% of 20. The format displayed above, "(this number) is (some percent) of (that number)", always holds true for percents. In any given problem, you plug your known values into this equation, and then you solve for whatever is left. Suppose you bought something that was priced at $6.95, and the total bill was $7.61. What is the sales tax rate in this city? (Round answer to one decimal place.)
The sales tax is a certain percentage of the price, so I first have to figure what the actual tax was. The tax was:
0.66 = (x)(6.95)
Solving for x, I get:
81 75 = 6
The price has gone up six cents. Now I can find the percentage increase over the original price. Note this language, "increase/decrease over the original", and use it to your advantage: it will remind you to put the increase or decrease over the original value, and then divide. This percentage increase is the relative change:
6
/75 = 0.08
An important category of percentage exercises is markup and markdown problems. For these, you calculate the markup or markdown in absolute terms (you find by how much the quantity changed), and then you calculate the percent change relative to the original value. So they're really just another form of "increase - decrease" exercises. A computer software retailer used a markup rate of 40%. Find the selling price of a computer game that cost the retailer $25.
(0.40)(25) = 10
Then the selling price, being the cost plus markup, is:
25 + 10 = 35
The item sold for $35. A golf shop pays its wholesaler $40 for a certain club, and then sells it to a golfer for $75. What is the markup rate?
75 40 = 35
Then I'll find the relative markup over the original price, or the markup rate: ($35) is (some percent) of ($40), or:
Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved
35 = (x)(40)
...so the relative markup over the original price is:
35 40 = x = 0.875
Since x stands for a percentage, I need to remember to convert this decimal value to the corresponding percentage. The markup rate is 87.5%. A shoe store uses a 40% markup on cost. Find the cost of a pair of shoes that sells for $63.
This problem is somewhat backwards. They gave me the selling price, which is cost plus markup, and they gave me the markup rate, but they didn't tell me the actual cost or markup. So I have to be clever to solve this. I will let "x" be the cost. Then the markup, being 40% of the cost, is 0.40x. And the selling price of $63 is the sum of the cost and markup, so:
First, I'll find the markdown. The markdown is 25% of the original price of $55, so:
x = (0.25)(55) = 13.75
By subtracting this markdown from the original price, I can find the sale price:
55 13.75 = 41.25
The sale price is $41.25. An item that regularly sells for $425 is marked down to $318.75. What is the discount rate?
Then I'll calculate "the markdown over the original price", or the markdown rate: ($106.25) is (some percent) of ($425), so:
106.25 = (x)(425)
...and the relative markdown over the original price is:
This problem is backwards. They gave me the sale price ($127.46) and the markdown rate (15%), but neither the markdown amount nor the original price. I will let "x" stand for the original price. Then the markdown, being 15% of this price, was 0.15x. And the sale price is the original price, less the markdown, so I get:
Note that, while the values below do not refer to money, the procedures used to solve these problems are otherwise identical to the markup - markdown examples on the previous page. Growing up, you lived in a tiny country village. When you left for college, the population was 840. You recently heard that the population has grown by 5%. What is the present population?
First, I'll find the actual amount of the increase. Since the increase is five percent of the original, then the increase is:
(0.05)(840) = 42
The new population is the old population plus the increase, or:
840 + 42 = 882
The population is now 882. Your friend diets and goes from 125 pounds to 110 pounds. What was her percentage weight loss?
125 110 = 15
This fifteen-pound decrease is some percentage of the original, since the rate of change is always with respect to the original value. So the percentage is "change over original", or:
Since no suburban lot is going to be only eighteen feet wide (because then the house couldn't fit along the street frontage), the width of the lot must be the 51-foot dimension. Now I need to figure out the length of the back yard. The area of the garden is:
(18)(51) = 918
This represents 24% of the total yard area; that is, 24% of the original lawn area. This says that (918 square feet) is (twenty-four percent) of (the original), so:
3825 51 = 75
The length then is 75 feet. Since 18 feet are taken up by the garden, then the lawn area is 75 The back yard measures 51'
18 = 57 feet deep.
"Number" Word Problems "Number" word problems are fairly contrived, but they're also fairly
standard, so you should learn how to handle them. After all, the point of these problems isn't their relation to "real life", but your ability to extract the math from the English. The sum of two consecutive integers is 15. Find the numbers.
They've given me two pieces of information here. First, I know that I am adding two numbers, and their sum is fifteen. Second, I know that the numbers are nice neat round numbers (like 3 or 6), not messy ones (like 4.628 or 17/32), and that the second number is one more than the first. This last piece of information comes from the fact that "consecutive integers" (or "consecutive whole numbers", if they're restricting the possibilities to only positive numbers) are one unit apart. Examples of "consecutive integers" would be 12 and 11, 1 and 2, and 99 and 100. Using these facts, I can set up the translation. I will represent the first number by "n". Then the second number has to be "n
n + (n + 1) = 15 2n + 1 = 15
They have told me quite a bit about these two numbers: the numbers are even and they are negative. (The fact that they are negative may help if I come up with two solutions a positive and a negative so I'll know which one to pick.) Since even numbers are two apart (for example, 4 and 2 or 10 and 12), then I also know that the second number is two greater than the first. I also know that, when I multiply the two numbers, I will get 24. In other words, letting the first number be "n" and the second number be "n + 2", I have:
(n)(n + 2) = 24 n2 + 2n = 24 n2 + 2n 24 = 0 (n + 6)(n 4) = 0
Then the solutions are n = 6 and n = 4. Since the numbers I am looking for are negative, I can ignore the "4" and take n = 6. Then the next number is n + 2 = 4, and the answer is The numbers are 6 and 4. In the exercise above, one of the answers was one of the solutions to the equation; the other answer was the negative of the other solution to the equation. Warning: Do not assume that you can use both solutions if you just change the signs to be whatever you feel like. While this often "works", it does not always work, and it's sure to annoy your teacher. Throw out invalid results, and solve properly for valid ones. Twice the larger of two numbers is three more than five times the smaller, and the sum of four times the larger and three times the smaller is 71. What are the numbers?
The point of exercises like this is to give you practice in unwrapping and unwinding these words, and turning the words into algebraic equations. The point is in the solving, not in the relative "reality" of the problem. That said, how do you solve this? The best first step is to start labelling: the larger number: x the smaller number: y twice the larger: 2x three more than five times the smaller: 5y relationship between ("is"): 2x = 5y + 3 four times the larger: 4x three times the smaller: 3y relationship between ("sum of"):
+3
4x + 3y = 71
2x = 5y + 3 4x + 3y = 71
I will solve, say, the first equation for x:
x = (5/2)y + (3/2)
Then I'll plug the right-hand side of this into the second equation in place of the "x":
14", but