Pre-Algebra : Word Problems with One Unknown

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Pre-Algebra

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Example Questions

Example Question #31 : Word Problems

A new shirt costs  before tax. If sales tax is  percent, what is the final cost of the shirt?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

First, convert the tax percentage into its decimal by dividing by :

Next, find what the tax is on the shirt by multiplying its cost by the value you found above for the tax:

Finally, add the tax to the pre-tax cost of the shirt:

Example Question #32 : Algebraic Equations

The sum of three consecutive even numbers is 96. What is the largest number?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

         - 6     -6

/3         /3

Largest Number = 34

Example Question #31 : Algebraic Equations

Scotty went to the store to buy some extra baseballs for batting practice. He bought 2 dozen baseballs to add to the number of baseballs he already has. After batting practice, half of his total number of baseballs goes missing. He now only has 32 baseballs left. Based on this information, how many baseballs did he start with?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

2 Dozen = 24

32 = half

64 = total number he had after he bought the 2 dozen

64 - 24 = 40 which is the amount Scotty started with

Example Question #33 : Word Problems

Suppose Tina makes  ribbons every minute.  How many ribbons did Tina make in an hour?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write an equation using  as the total number of ribbons Tina will make and  as time in minutes.

 

An hour has 60 minutes.  

Substitute .

Tina will make 900 ribbons in an hour.

Example Question #32 : Algebraic Equations

Suppose Billy makes 5 nuggets every day from working.  How many nuggets will he have after 45 days?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let  represent the days.  Set up an equation such that the number of nuggets  is dependent on the number of days Billy works.

To find out the total amount of nuggets Billy will make after 45 days, substitute this number into  and solve for .

Billy will make 225 nuggets after 45 days.

Example Question #34 : Word Problems

Mary had a little lamb. Every three days, she earns another small lamb. How many little lambs will Mary have after ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write an equation to represent the lambs she will earn after every three days.

Let  be days, and  be total of lambs. Write the equation.

Substitute the number of days to find out how many lambs Mary has.

However, remember that Mary already had a little lamb, which means the total number of sheep she will have will be one more than the total number of sheep after .

The answer is :  

Example Question #37 : Algebraic Equations

It costs $49 to rent a moving truck and it costs $0.75 per mile that you travel. Write the equation for the total cost of renting the truck and driving  miles.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When renting a truck, it doesn't matter if you drive 0 miles or 100 miles it will still cost you the rental charge. In this case it was $49. Every mile you drive it costs you $0.75. The cost for miles would be:

Example Question #33 : Algebraic Equations

Jazmine went shopping and bought a shirt and shoes. She paid $12 for the shirt. If the total bill was $29, how much did the shoes cost?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When you have an unknown value, replace that value with a variable.  In this case, the cost of the shoes is unknown.  We know that the total cost of the shirt and the shoes equals $29, so we can write the equation.

To solve for x, we subtract 12 from both sides.  We get

So, the cost of the shoes is $17.

Example Question #39 : Algebraic Equations

John wants to buy a car for that costs $26,790. He works in a restaurant for 23 hours a week, where he makes $9.50 per hour. He also works as a tutor, where he makes $19 an hour. What is the minimum number of hours John must work as a tutor each week in order to be able to afford the car in 40 weeks?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The following equation can be set up to reflect the information in the problem, with  representing the number of tutoring hours per week:

Simplifying gives the following:

We must then isolate  to one side by subtracting  from each side and then dividing both sides by , as follows:

Therefore, John must tutor for a minimum of  hours per week in order to be able to afford the car in 40 weeks.

Example Question #32 : Algebraic Equations

You go to the store and buy apples. The apples cost $0.14 each. The cashier rings up your apples and says your total is $1.12 .  How many apples did you buy?

Possible Answers:

12 apples

9 apples

10 apples

4 apples

8 apples

Correct answer:

8 apples

Explanation:

To solve, we will create an equation. We don't know how many apples we bought. When we don't know the value of something, we assign it a variable. so, the number of apples we bought will be x. Now, we know each apple cost $0.14.  We can write this as

We also know that the total cost of the apples equals $1.12. We can write this as

Now, to solve for x we divide both sides by 0.14. We get

Therefore, we bought 8 apples.

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