A problem with one variable: How old is Al? Al's father is 45.

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.

Age Problems Involving A Single Person

Example 1: Five years ago, Johns age was half of the age he will be in 8 years. How old is he now? Solution: Step 1: Let x be Johns age now. Look at the question and put the relevant expressions above it.

Step 2: Write out the equation.

Isolate variable x

Answer: John is now 18 years old.

Age Problems Involving More Than One Person

Example 2: John is twice as old as his friend Peter. Peter is 5 years older than Alice. In 5 years, John will be three times as old as Alice. How old is Peter now? Solution: Step 1: Set up a table. age now age in 5 yrs John Peter Alice Step 2: Fill in the table with information given in the question. John is twice as old as his friend Peter. Peter is 5 years older than Alice. In 5 years, John will be three times as old as Alice. How old is Peter now? Let x be Peters age now. Add 5 to get the ages in 5 yrs. age now age in 5 yrs John 2x 2x + 5 Peter x x+5 Alice x5 x5+5 Write the new relationship in an equation using the ages in 5 yrs. In 5 years, John will be three times as old as Alice.

2x + 5 = 3(x 5 + 5) 2x + 5 = 3x Isolate variable x x=5 Answer: Peter is now 5 years old.

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

Johns father John Alice

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.

Answer: John is now 8 years old.

"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:

E + 9 = 4W + 36 (13W) + 9 = 4W + 36 13W 4W = 36 9 9W = 27 W=3

Remember that the problem did not ask for the value of the variable W; it asked for the age of a person. So the answer is: William was three years old in January of 2000. The important steps above were to set up the variables, labelling them all clearly with their definitions, and then to increment the variables by the required amount (in this case, by 9) to reflect the passage of time. Don't try to use the same expression to stand for two different things. If "E " stands for my age in 2000, then "E " can not also stand for my age in 2009. Make sure that you are very explicit about this when you set up your equations; write down the two sets of information (our ages at the first time, and then our ages at the second time) as two distinct situations. In three more years, Miguel's grandfather will be six times as old as Miguel was last year. When Miguel's present age is added to his grandfather's present age, the total is 68. How old is each one now? Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved

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 + 3 = 402 6g g + 6g = 402 3 7g = 399 g = 57

Since "g" stands for the grandfather's current age, then the grandfather is 57 years old. Since m 11, and Miguel is presently eleven years old.

+ 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

/2 + 1 + H/3 1 = 20 H /2 + H/3 = 20 3H + 2H = 120 5H = 120 H = 24

Heather is 24 years old. Note: Remember that you can always check your answer to any "solving" exercise by plugging that answer back into the original problem. If Heather is 24 now, then she will be 26 in two years, half of which is 13, and she was 21 three years ago, a third of which is 7. Adding, I get 13 + 7 = 20, so the solution works.

"Work" Word Problems (page 1 of 4)

"Work" problems involve situations such as two people working together to paint a house. You are usually told how long each person takes to paint a similarly-sized house, and you are asked how long it will take the two of them to paint the house when they work together. Many of these problems are not terribly realistic (since when do two laser printers work together on printing one report?), but it's the technique that they want you to learn, not the applicability to "real life". The method of solution for work problems is not obvious, so don't feel bad if you're totally lost at the moment. There is a "trick" to doing work problems: you have to think of the problem in terms of how much each person / machine / whatever does in a given unit of time. For instance: Suppose one painter can paint the entire house in twelve hours, and the second painter takes eight hours. How long would it take the two painters together to paint the house?

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:
1

Copyright

Elizabeth Stapel 2006-2008 All Rights Reserved

/12 + 1/8 = 1/t /24 = 1/t /5 = t

24

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:
1

/f + 1/1.25f = 1/5

multiplying through by 5f:

5 + 5/1.25 = f 5+4=f=9
Then 1.25f =

11.25, so the slower pipe takes 11.25 hours.

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.

Basic "Percent of" Word Problems (page 1 of 3)

Sections: Basic percentage exercises, Markup / markdown, General increase / decrease When you learned how to translate simple English statements into mathematical expressions, you learned that "of" can indicate "times". This frequently comes up when using percentages. If you need to find 16% of 1400, you first convert the percentage "16%" to its decimal form; namely, the number "0.16". (When you are doing actual math, you need to use actual numbers. Always convert the percentages to decimals!) Then, since "sixteen percent OF fourteen hundred" tells you to multiply the 0.16 and the 1400, you get: (0.16)(1400) = 224. This says that 224 is sixteen percent of 1400. Percentage problems usually work off of some version of the sentence "(this) is (some percentage) of (that)", which translates to "(this) = (some decimal) (that)". You will be given two of the values, or at least enough information that you can figure two of them out. Then you'll need to pick a variable for the value you don't have, write an equation, and solve for that variable. What percent of 20 is 30?

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:

7.61 6.95 = 0.66

Then (the sales tax) is (some percentage) of (the price), or, in mathematical terms:

0.66 = (x)(6.95)
Solving for x, I get:

0.66 6.95 = x = 0.094964028... = 9.4964028...%

The sales tax rate is 9.5%. In the above example, I first had to figure out what the actual tax was. Many percentage problems are really "two-parters" like this: they involve some kind of increase or decrease relative to some original value. Warning: Always figure the percentage of change relative to the original value. Suppose a certain item used to sell for seventy-five cents a pound, you see that it's been marked up to eighty-one cents a pound. What is the percent increase?
Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved

First, I have to find the absolute increase:

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

...or an 8% increase in price per pound.

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.

The markup is 40% of the $25 cost, so the markup is:

(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?

First, I'll calculate the markup in absolute terms:

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:

63 = x + 0.40x 63 = 1x + 0.40x 63 = 1.40x 63 1.40 = x= 45

The shoes cost the store $45. An item originally priced at $55 is marked 25% off. What is the sale price?

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?

First, I'll find the amount of the markdown:

425 318.75 = 106.25

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:

x = 106.25 425 = 0.25

Since the "x" stands for a percentage, I need to remember to convert this decimal to percentage form. The markdown rate is 25%. An item is marked down 15%; the sale price is $127.46. What was the original price?

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:

x 0.15x = 127.46 1x 0.15x = 127.46 0.85x = 127.46 x = 127.46 0.85 = 149.952941176...

This problem didn't state how to round the final answer, but dollars-and-cents is always written with two decimal places, so: The original price was $149.95. Note in this last problem that I ended up, in the third line of calculations, with an equation that said "eighty-five percent of the original price is $127.46". You can save yourself some time if you think of discounts in this way: if the price is 15% off, then you're only actually paying 85%. Similarly, if the price is 25% off, then you're paying 75%; if the price is 30% off, then you're paying 70%; and so on.

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?

First, I'll find the absolute 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:

15 = (x)(125) 15 125 = x 15 125 = 0.12

The change is a percentage, so I need to convert this decimal to percentage form: She lowered her weight by 12%. Your boss says that his wife has put an 18 51 foot garden in along the whole back end of their back yard. He says that this has reduced the back-yard lawn area by 24%. What are the total dimensions of his back yard? What are the dimensions of the remaining lawn area? Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All
Rights Reserved (See? The change, 15, is over the original, 125.)

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:

918 = 0.24x 918 0.24 = x = 3825

The total back yard area is 3825 square feet. Since the width is 51 feet, then:

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.

75' and the lawn measures 51' 57'.

"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

+ 1". Their sum is then:

n + (n + 1) = 15 2n + 1 = 15

2n = 14 n = 7 Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved

The exercise did not ask me for the value of the variable n; it asked for the identity of two numbers. So my answer is not "n = 7"; the actual answer is: "The numbers are 7 and 8." The product of two consecutive negative even integers is 24. Find the numbers.

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

Now I have two equations in two variables:

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":

4[ (5/2)y + (3/2) ] + 3y = 71 10y + 6 + 3y = 71 13y + 6 = 71 13y = 65 y = 65/13 = 5

Now that I have the value for y, I can solve for x:

x = (5/2)y + (3/2) x = (5/2)(5) + (3/2) x = (25/2) + (3/2) x = 28/2 = 14

As always, I need to remember to answer the question that was actually asked. The solution here is not "x = is the following sentence: The larger number is 14, and the smaller number is 5.

14", but