HSPT Math : How to do work problems
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Example Questions
Example Question #11 : How To Do Work Problems
A machine can make one hundred caramel creams in twenty five minutes.
The owner of the machine wants to fill an order of two hundred boxes of caramel creams; eighty of the boxes are to be large boxes, which contain fifty candies each, and the rest are to be small boxes, which contain thirty candies each. How many hours will it take to make enough candies to fill all two hundred boxes?
Select the closest answer.
80 boxes contain 50 candies each; 120 boxes contain 30 candies each. Therefore, there will be a total of
candies in the boxes.
It takes 25 minutes to produce 100 candies. It takes
minutes to produce 7,600 candies. Divide by 60 to convert to hours:
This is 31 hours and 40 minutes. The closest response to this is 30 hours.
Example Question #11 : Word Problems
Phillip can paint his father's greenhouse in six hours, working alone. His brother Greg can perform the same task in 
Phillip can paint the greenhouse in six hours, so he can paint 
Working together, they can paint
of the greenhouse in one hour. Take the reciprocal of this; it takes them
hours to paint the enitre greenhouse, working together.
Example Question #13 : Word Problems
Kelly can paint her father's shed in five hours, working alone. Working together, she and her sister Sharon can complete the task in 
Let 
shed per hour.
Since it takes them five hours to paint the shed together, they can paint 
Take the reciprocal of both expressions:
Example Question #14 : Word Problems
What information in the following word problem is not relevant to the questions?
Jess has a square garden with a length of 5 feet in which there are four kinds of flowers. There are ten tulips, three roses, four petunias, and three lilies. What is the probability of picking a tulip?
Three lilies
The side length and of the garden and the shape of the garden.
Four petunias
Three roses
Ten tulips
The side length and of the garden and the shape of the garden.
For this problem, first identify what the question is asking for.
"What is the probability of picking a tulip?"
Next, identify what is given.
Shape of the garden: Square
Length of the garden: 5 feet
# of tulips: 10
# of roses: 3
# of petunias: 4
# of lilies: 3
Now, identify what is needed to solve the question.
Since you are looking for the probability of picking a flower, you only need the number of the different kinds of flowers and the total number of flowers to get that answer.
From here, find which information that is given is not being used to solve the question.
The side length and of the garden and the shape of the garden would not help find that probability.
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