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Elementary Archive

Browse Elementary Word Problems

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21 Nickels, Dimes, and Pennies in a Dollar [11/8/1994]

How can you have 21 coins of nickels, dimes, pennies that equal one dollar? No quarters. My son and I need an explanation.

8 dimes, 5 quarters, 4 half dollars [1/13/1995]

Jacob has 8 dimes, Laura has 5 quarters, and Mellisa has 4 half dollars. How much money is this all together?

Blending Seed [09/27/1998]

How much of $0.65/lb seed does a dealer need to combine with 200 lbs of $0.45/lb seed to make a $0.55/lb blend?

Distance, rate, and time [11/16/1994]

A dolphin is swimming at 250 km per hour, the water is flowing at 150 km per hour, and he is trying to get to his destination 500 miles away. How long will it take him to get to his destination?

Equations from Word Problems, and Units [05/19/2003]

In 2 1/4 hours the temperature dropped 13 1/9 degrees. How many degrees did the temperature drop per hour? How do I convert this from words into an equation?

Marble Puzzle [3/10/1996]

Jason and Bob together have 193 marbles. Bob has 47 marbles less than Jason; if Jason gives Bob 15 of them, how many more marbles does Jason have than Bob?

Math Logic [6/5/1996]

Sally, Ron, Jim, and Meghan are President, VP, Treasurer, and Captain of the cheerleading squad, but not necessarily in that order. Who is what?

Pascal's Triangle and the ice cream cones [12/9/1994]

There are 31 flavors of ice cream at the local ice cream store. How many triple-scoop cones can you make?

Running Laps and LCMs [02/11/1999]

Bill, Bob, and John run 1/3rd, 1/5th, and 1/6th of a lap per minute, respectively. How many laps do they need to run to cross the finish line at the same time?

A Tip for Solving Word Problems [11/8/1995]

Our fourth grade class is studying how to solve many different types of word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Can you give us some general steps for solving word problems?

Area of a Room [8/22/1995]

How many square yards of carpet does it take to fill a room that is 20 yards by 30 yards?

Birdseed Formula [6/5/1995]

Someone has 3 dollars and wants to buy two kinds of bird seed. One kind is $1.49/lb. and the other is $2.88/lb...What is the formula for figuring out how much bird seed she can buy? (Includes tax.)

Broken Eggs [12/12/1996]

When a farmer puts eggs in groups of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, there is always one egg left over. With groups of 7, there are no eggs left over. How many eggs are there?

Bus Fare Problem [02/12/1998]

Each of 5 students paid a fare with 5 coins, for a total of $21.83. How many pennies did the bus driver receive?

Buying and Selling Horses [10/22/1995]

A man buys a horse for $60, sells the horse for $70, rebuys the horse for $80, and sells the horse for $90. Did the man break even, lose money, or gain money? If he lost or gained money, how much?

Calculating Percentage Markup Versus Profit [01/23/2004]

In order to figure a profit of 10% I would normally take my cost and then multiply by 1.1 to find the selling price. My employer tells me that in order to find a 10% profit I should divide my cost by 0.9, but I don't understand how this is 10%. Can you please explain?

Can He Buy Enough Hose? [5/12/1995]

George needs 33 yards of hose to water his lawn. He has $25. Can he get 50 feet of hose for $12.99?

A Cat Word Problem [08/23/2001]

You have 5 cats and they all are 6 and all weigh 10 pounds. How much do they weigh altogether?

A Chicken and a Half?! [05/07/1997]

If a chicken and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how long does it take to get a dozen eggs?

Chocolate or Vanilla Ice Cream [10/22/2002]

In a recent survey, 1550 people said they liked only chocolate ice cream and 2550 said they liked only vanilla. How many people liked either chocolate or vanilla ice cream?

Choosing 3 of 6 Colors [03/03/2000]

Patrick has a box of crayons with red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple. How many different ways can Patrick select 3 colors?

Delivering Papers [11/15/1999]

How many papers will Juni deliver if Uri delivers 5 newspapers in the same time that Juni delivers 4 newspapers, and they have a total of 54 papers to deliver?

Diagramming Days [08/28/2003]

What day of the week was yesterday if 5 days before the day after tomorrow was Wednesday?

Does Unit Price Always Give the Best Buy? [12/30/2007]

Which is the best buy, 13 videos for $25 or 11 videos for $20? It seems like there are a couple ways to analyze the question.

Dog Food Mixture [10/23/2002]

A grocer wishes to mix 6 pounds of Chippy dog food worth $3 per pound with Hippy dog food, worth $4 per pound. How much of the Hippy dog food should be mixed if the dog food mixture is to sell for $3.20?

Egg Doubling Problem; UK & US: Naming Large Numbers [5/6/1996]

The sixtieth time you double them, you have a lot of eggs! How many rectangles would they fill if each egg is one unit?

Fibonacci and Possible Tilings [09/24/2003]

You are going to pave a 15 ft by 2 ft walkway with 1 ft by 2 ft paving stones. How does the Fibonacci sequence relate to the number of possible ways that the walkway can be paved?

A Four-year-old Thinks About Even and Odd Numbers [07/22/1999]

"Half" means 2 parts, and some numbers are not that way. Mom says they're "odd." It's not fair letting 2 be even all by itself!

Fractions and School Enrollments [02/26/2003]

The sum of 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 of the enrollment of the Business School is exactly the enrollment of the Language School. The sum of 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, and 1/8 of the enrollment of the Business School is exactly that of the Design School. What are the enrollments of these three schools, assuming no school has more than 1000 pupils?

Fractions of a Cup [04/15/2003]

A diagram: for a mixture of 3 cups concentrate and 4 cups water, how much water and concentrate would you need to make 1 cup of mix?

Gift Wrap Combinations [04/20/1999]

Mary has 3 different colors of ribbon and 2 different colors of wrapping paper. How many many different ways can she wrap a gift?

Girls, Cats, and Kittens [11/05/2007]

There are seven girls on a bus. Each girl has one sack and each sack has seven cats inside. Each cat has a litter of seven kittens. How many legs are on the bus?

Guess and Check - How Many Coins? [10/03/2002]

Jeremy has seven fewer coins than Hanna. If together they have 83 coins, how many coins does Hanna have?

How Far Did Each Tire Travel? [01/01/2003]

A woman drove 80,000 miles, using her spare tire and the regular four tires for equal distances.

How Fast Can I Play Piano Notes? [2/15/1995]

If I can play six notes on the piano in 1/96 of a minute, how fast can I play 4 notes?

How Heavy is the Brick? [11/15/1997]

If a brick weighs a kilogram plus half a brick, how heavy is the brick?

How Long is Duke the Dog? [09/04/2001]

Duke the dog's head is 6 inches long, his tail is as long as his head plus half the length of his body, and his body is as long as the head and the tail combined.

How Long Will it Take to Make the Quilt? [5/21/1995]

Adele can make a quilt in 6 days, Gary in 10 days, and Sarah in 15 days. Adele and Gary work for three days. How long will it take for Gary and Sarah to finish?

How Many Apples? [09/19/2002]

How many apples did John get from his boss?

How Many Days in the Month? [01/22/2004]

There were eleven days of rain one month in Boston. Of the remaining days, two-fifths were sunny, one-fourth were cloudy, and it snowed the other seven days. How many days were in the month?

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