Weibel Math Club

September 31, 2015

Word Problems
Steps to solve word problems
1. Set up variables. Indicate what each variable stands for. (Make a chart for
mixture problems)
2. Present the problem in equations. If there is 1 variable, there should be at
least 1 equation. If there are 2 variables, there should be at least 2
equations. If there are n variables, there should be n equations.
3. Solve the equations.
4. Write the answers with units.
1. When five times a number is decreased by 1, it has the same value as
four times the number increased by 10. What is the number?

Let a = the number

5a 1 = 4a + 10

Set up variables.
Present the problem in equations.

a 1 = 10
Solve.
a = 11
The number is 11.
2. When three times the quantity of a number multiplied by 4 and
subtracted by 1, it has the same value as six times the number decreased
by 2. What is the number?

3. Find three consecutive integers with a sum of 243.

4. The sum of three consecutive odd integers is 75. Find the integers.

5. Find the second of three consecutive integers if the sum of twice the first
and 4 times the second is equal to 20 more than twice the third.

6. Mrs. Jenkins has five children. Her youngest child is two years old. The
next three children have consecutive ages. Her oldest child is 2 years
older than the second oldest. If the combined ages of the children is 41,
what are ages of Mrs. Jenkins children?

7. Brady has $66 in his account. He is saving $4.20 per week. How long will
it take him to save $339?

8. Machine A, Machine B, and Machine C are three different models of

balloon stamping machines. In one week, Machine A stamps four times as
many balloons as Machine B. Machine C stamps 400 more balloons than
Machine A. All three machine working together stamp 20,200 balloons in
one week. Find the number of balloons stamped by each machine in one
week.

9. The length of a rectangle is 7cm more than five times the width. The
perimeter is 254 cm. Find the dimensions of the rectangle.

10.

There are 20 horses and chickens at Old Macdonald's farm. Together

there are 58 legs. How many horses and how many chickens?

11.

There are 33 octopus and sea otters and together they have 188

arms/legs. How many octopus and how many sea otters are there?

12.

An auto mechanic has 300 mL of battery acid solution that is 60% acid.

He must add water to this solution to dilute it so that it is only 45% acid.
How much water should he add?
Total

% acid

amoun
t
Origina 300

Amoun
t

60%

acid
180

0%

of

-Original amount of acid + added acid

= New amount of acid
-Total amount * % acid = Amount of acid

l
solutio
n
Water

New

300 + 45%

solutio

180
Let x be amount of water .
180
45
9
=
=
300+ x 100 20

2700+9 x=3600
9 x=900
x=100 mL
13.

The owner of the Fancy Food Shop wants to mix cashews selling at

$8.00/kg and pecans selling at $7.00/kg. How many kilograms of each

kind of nut should be mixed to get 8kg worth $7.25/kg?

14.

Josh can split a cord of wood in 4 days. His father can split a cord in 2

days. How long will it take them to split a cord of wood if they work
together?

15.

Using a new lawn mower, Abby can mow the lawn in 2 hours. Her sister

Carla uses an older mower and takes 3 hours to mow the same lawn. How
long will it take them if they worked together?

16.

Brett usually takes 50 min to groom the horses. After working 10 min,

he was joined by Angela and they finished the grooming in 15 min. How
long would it have taken Angela working alone?

17.

A chemist has 40 mL of a solution that is 50% acid. How much water

should he add to make a solution that is 10% acid?

18.

If 800 mL of a juice drink is 15% grape juice, how much grape juice

should be added to make a drink that is 20% grape juice?

19.

Katherine drove for 2 hours at 85 km/hr and then for 3 hours more at

95 km/hr. What was her average speed for the entire trip?

20.

A grocer mixes 5 lb of egg noodles costing 80 cents/lb with 2 lb of

spinach noodles costing $1.50/lb. What will the cost per pound of the
mixture be?