Making up a Division Word Problem

Date: 11/13/2001 at 22:30:29
From: ashley gooden
Subject: Word problem

Write a problem that could be solved by using the division sentence 
1489/28 = n. Then write a pair of compatible numbers and estimate the 
quotient.                

Grandma and I don't understand.

Thank you for your help,
Ashley

Date: 11/15/2001 at 10:57:25
From: Doctor Code
Subject: Re: Word problem

Hi Ashley,

Let's use a slightly different problem as an example:

   1194 / 32 = n

What we have to do is come up with a word problem that can be solved 
with the above division sentence. How about this:

     Your teacher has 1194 jellybeans to give to the class. 
     The class has 32 students. If the teacher gives them 
     out about equally, how many jellybeans will each 
     student get?

If you were given this word problem, you could find the answer by 
dividing 1194 by 32. That's why the division sentence can solve the 
problem.

But 1194 and 32 aren't such nice numbers to divide, so we can estimate 
the solution by changing 1194 into 1200, and changing 32 into 30. Our 
new division sentence would be:

   1200 / 30 = n

          40 = n

So each student would get about 40 jellybeans. 40 is pretty close to 
the actual answer (37.3125). Now try the same method with your 
original sentence.

Write back if you need more help.

- Doctor Code, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/