Algebra 1 Highschool

What is the first step in solving word problems?

Visualize the problem. The first step is to visualize the problem. See if you can picture what is going on.

Take this word problem:

Lucy's rabbit recently had a litter of bunnies and so did Sam's rabbit. Sam's rabbit gave birth to 4 boy and 3 girl bunnies. Lucy's rabbit gave birth to 2 boy and 8 girl bunnies. How many baby rabbits does Lucy have?

Which of the following is NOT an important part of this word problem:

Sam's rabbit gave birth to 4 boy and 3 girl bunnies. The question is only asking about Lucy's rabbits, so Sam's rabbits are irrelevant. Sam's rabbit and its litter are not important to the problem.

Which of the following is the equation to solve the following word problem?

Sam has 4 red balloons and 8 purple balloons. Judy has 12 red balloons and 4 orange balloons. How many red balloons do Sam and Judy have together?

x = 4 + 12 X is the unknown, in this case, the total number of red balloons. To find X, you need to add Sam's 4 red balloons to Judy's 12 red balloons. So the correct equation is X = 4 + 12.

Sam has 4 RED balloons and 8 PURPLE balloons. Judy has 12 RED balloons and 4 ORANGE balloons. How many RED balloons do Sam and Judy have together?

16 In this problem, we just need to add the red balloons together. Sam has 4 red balloons and Judy as 12 red balloons, so the answer is 16 total red balloons.

Sam's rabbit recently had a litter of bunnies and so did Lucy's rabbit. Sam's rabbit gave birth to 4 boy and 3 girl bunnies. Lucy's rabbit gave birth to 2 boy and 8 girl bunnies. How many boy rabbits were born altogether?

6 Sam's rabbit has 4 boys and Lucy's rabbit has 2 boys. 4 + 2 = 6.

Joe has 8 Dalmatians. Sarah has 3 fewer Dalmatians than Joe. How many Dalmatians do they have together?

13 Remember that we must subtract and add to solve this problem.

8 - 3 = 5 Sarah has 5 Dalmatians.

8 + 5 = 13

They have 13 Dalmatians altogether.

Which of the following is an equation to solve this word problem?

Joe has four blue pens and three green pens. Sarah gives Joe four blue pens and two green pens. Sarah originally had 10 blue pens and 12 green pens. How many blue pens does Sarah now have?

x = 10 - 4 To find the number of blue pens Sarah now has, we need to subtract the number of pens she gave Joe (4) from the number she originally had (10).

So our equations is: x = 10-4

Joe has four blue pens and three green pens. Sarah gives Joe four blue pens and two green pens. Sarah originally had 10 blue pens and 12 green pens. How many blue pens does Sarah now have?

6 Sarah had 10 blue pens and gave Joe 4 of them. She now has 6 blue pens.

10 - 4 = 6

What operations are needed to solve the word problem below?

Joe has 8 Dalmatians. Sarah has 3 fewer Dalmatians than Joe. How many Dalmatians do they have together?

Subtraction and addition Visualize the problem. What's going on? We know that we need to find out how many Dalmatians Sarah has, so we will have to subtract because we know she has 3 fewer than Joe. And we need to find out how many Dalmatians Joe and Sarah have altogether. That requires adding.

When solving a word problem, what should you do after visualizing the problem?

Write the equations. After you visualize the problem, write equations that will help you answer the question.

the three steps to solving word problems are

visualize the problem, write the equation, solve the equations

What is the first step in solving a word problem?

Visualize it. The first step is trying to visualize and see the problem in your mind. You might even make some sketches or make some notes to help yourself begin to visualize the problem.

What parts of a word problem should be sketched?

The important parts that will help answer the problem. When you read the problem, look for the most important parts, in this case, the balloons. You should try to sketch the most important parts of the word problem that will actually help you find the answer.

Both Drew and Barry operate baking companies. They are competitors. This coming weekend they are going head to head in the annual bake-off competition at the county fair. Drew is going to bake 15 of his best known pies such as chocolate mousse and coconut crème. Barry is going to also bake 15 of his best known pies such as sweet potato and key lime. How many total pies will be baked between Drew and Barry?

30 Drew is going to bake 15 pies so visualize 15 steaming pies. Barry is also going to bake 15 pies, so visualize 15 more steaming pies. We want to know the total, so we will do some addition here. 15 + 15 = 30.

Which of the following statements is the most important part of this word problem that you should sketch and make note of to help you solve the problem?

Drew and Barry each have a baking company. They are competitors. This coming weekend they are going head-to-head in the annual bake-off competition at the county fair. Drew is going to bake 15 of his best known pies such as chocolate mousse and coconut creme. Barry is also going to bake 15 of his best-known pies such as sweet potato and key lime. How many total pies will be baked between Drew and Barry?

Drew is going to bake 15 pies. This problem is asking you to work out the total number of pies between Drew and Barry. Thus, an important part of the problem to sketch and make note of are the numbers of pies that Drew and Barry were each going to bake. You should sketch and make note of Drew's 15 pies.

What kinds of notes should you take?

Important notes that will help you solve the problem Take down important notes that will help you solve such as what operation is needed and the numbers involved.

Joy takes a car and a boat to get to work. It takes Joy two hours to get to work each morning. If Joy spends 45 minutes on the boat, how long does she spend driving?

1 hour 15 minutes Personalizing word problems involves restating the word problem using terms that you are more familiar with. In the problem above, practice using yourself and a situation that is personalized to you. Subtract 45 minutes from 2 hours to get one hour and 15 minutes.

Which of the following word problems is the properly restated form of this word problem?

Linda brings four apples and Joey brings six apples. How many apples does each friend get if there are five friends?

When shopping for gifts, you see two gift boxes for sale. One contains four watches and the other contains six watches. If there are five friends and you buy both gift boxes, how many watches will each friend receive? Personalize a word problem with more familiar situations. Instead of visualizing Linda, visualize yourself shopping for gifts using the same numbers, four and six, as well as using five friends.

Six lollipops are divided equally among three friends. If each friend now has 10 lollipops, how many lollipops did each friend originally have?

8 6/3 = 2

10 - 2 = 8

Two trains meet each other in Treeport. One train comes from the east two hours away. The other train comes from the west three hours away. If both trains are each 120 miles away from Treeport, how much faster is the faster train traveling?

20 miles per hour faster 120/2 = 60 miles per hour for one train

120/3 = 40 miles per hour for the other train

60 - 40 = 20 miles per hour faster

What important thing do you have to remember when restating word problems?

The restated word problem must be essentially the same problem. One thing you need to make sure of is that your restated problem is asking for the same solution as the original word problem.