All PSAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Translating Words To Linear Equations
We have three dogs: Joule, Newton, and Toby. Joule is three years older than twice Newton's age. Newton is Toby's age younger than eleven years. Toby is one year younger than Joules age. Find the age of each dog.
Joule: 12 years
Newton: 1 year
Toby: 5 year
Joule: 9 years
Newton: 3 years
Toby: 8 year
Joule: 5 years
Newton: Not born yet
Toby: 1 year
Joule: 8 years
Newton: 4 years
Toby: 8 year
none of these
Joule: 9 years
Newton: 3 years
Toby: 8 year
First, translate the problem into three equations. The statement, "Joule is three years older than twice Newton's age" is mathematically translated as
where represents Joule's age and is Newton's age.
The statement, "Newton is Toby's age younger than eleven years" is translated as
where is Toby's age.
The third statement, "Toby is one year younger than Joule" is
.
So these are our three equations. To figure out the age of these dogs, first I will plug the third equation into the second equation. We get
Plug this equation into the first equation to get
Solve for . Add to both sides
Divide both sides by 3
So Joules is 9 years old. Plug this value into the third equation to find Toby's age
Toby is 8 years old. Use this value to find Newton's age using the second equation
Now, we have the age of the following dogs:
Joule: 9 years
Newton: 3 years
Toby: 8 years
Example Question #11 : How To Find The Solution For A System Of Equations
Teachers at an elementary school have devised a system where a student's good behavior earns him or her tokens. Examples of such behavior include sitting quietly in a seat and completing an assignment on time. Jim sits quietly in his seat 2 times and completes assignments 3 times, earning himself 27 tokens. Jessica sits quietly in her seat 9 times and completes 6 assignments, earning herself 69 tokens. How many tokens is each of these two behaviors worth?
Sitting quietly and completing an assignment are each worth 4 tokens.
Sitting quietly is worth 7 tokens and completing an assignment is worth 3.
Sitting quietly is worth 3 tokens and completing an assignment is worth 9.
Sitting quietly is worth 3 tokens and completing an assignment is worth 7.
Sitting quietly is worth 9 tokens and completing an assignment is worth 3.
Sitting quietly is worth 3 tokens and completing an assignment is worth 7.
Since this is a long word problem, it might be easy to confuse the two behaviors and come up with the wrong answer. Let's avoid this problem by turning each behavior into a variable. If we call "sitting quietly" and "completing assignments" , then we can easily construct a simple system of equations,
and
.
We can multiply the first equation by to yield .
This allows us to cancel the terms when we add the two equations together. We get , or .
A quick substitution tells us that . So, sitting quietly is worth 3 tokens and completing an assignment on time is worth 7.
Example Question #2 : Translating Words To Linear Equations
Solve the following story problem:
Jack and Aaron go to the sporting goods store. Jack buys a glove for and wiffle bats for each. Jack has left over. Aaron spends all his money on hats for each and jerseys. Aaron started with more than Jack. How much does one jersey cost?
Let's call "" the cost of one jersey (this is the value we want to find)
Let's call the amount of money Jack starts with ""
Let's call the amount of money Aaron starts with ""
We know Jack buys a glove for and bats for each, and then has left over after. Thus:
simplifying, so Jack started with
We know Aaron buys hats for each and jerseys (unknown cost "") and spends all his money.
The last important piece of information from the problem is Aaron starts with dollars more than Jack. So:
From before we know:
Plugging in:
so Aaron started with
Finally we plug into our original equation for A and solve for x:
Thus one jersey costs
Example Question #3 : Translating Words To Linear Equations
Read, but do not solve, the following problem:
Adult tickets to the zoo sell for $11; child tickets sell for $7. One day, 6,035 tickets were sold, resulting in $50,713 being raised. How many adult and child tickets were sold?
If and stand for the number of adult and child tickets, respectively, which of the following systems of equations can be used to answer this question?
6,035 total tickets were sold, and the total number of tickets is the sum of the adult and child tickets, .
Therefore, we can say .
The amount of money raised from adult tickets is $11 per ticket mutiplied by tickets, or dollars; similarly, dollars are raised from child tickets. Add these together to get the total amount of money raised:
These two equations form our system of equations.
Example Question #1 : Systems Of Inequalities
Solve the following inequality for . Round your answer to the nearest tenth.
The first step is to square each side of the inequality.
Now simplify each side.
Now subtract the left side of the inequality to make it zero, so that we can use the quadratic formula.
Now we can use the quadratic formula.
Recall the quadratic formula.
Where , , and , correspond to coefficients in the quadratic equation.
In this case , , and .
Now plug these values into the quadratic equation, and we get.
Now since we are dealing with an inequality, we put the least value on the left side, and the greatest value on the right. It will look like the following.
Example Question #2 : Inequalities And Absolute Value
Solve the following inequality for , round your answer to the nearest tenth.
The first step is to square each side of the inequality.
Now simplify each side.
Now subtract the left side of the inequality to make it zero, so that we can use the quadratic formula.
Now we can use the quadratic formula.
Recall the quadratic formula.
Where , , and , correspond to coefficients in the quadratic equation.
In this case , , and .
Now plug these values into the quadratic equation, and we get.
Now since we are dealing with an inequality, we put the least value on the left side, and the greatest value on the right. It will look like the following.
Example Question #1 : Systems Of Inequalities
Solve the following inequality for , round your answer to the nearest tenth.
The first step is to square each side of the inequality.
Now simplify each side.
Now subtract the left side of the inequality to make it zero, so that we can use the quadratic formula.
Now we can use the quadratic formula.
Recall the quadratic formula.
Where , , and , correspond to coefficients in the quadratic equation.
In this case , , and .
Now plug these values into the quadratic equation, and we get.
Now since we are dealing with an inequality, we put the least value on the left side, and the greatest value on the right. It will look like the following.
Example Question #3 : Inequalities And Absolute Value
Solve the following inequality for , round your answer to the nearest tenth.
The first step is to square each side of the inequality.
Now simplify each side.
Now subtract the left side of the inequality to make it zero, so that we can use the quadratic formula.
Now we can use the quadratic formula.
Recall the quadratic formula.
Where , , and , correspond to coefficients in the quadratic equation.
In this case , , and .
Now plug these values into the quadratic equation, and we get.
Now since we are dealing with an inequality, we put the least value on the left side, and the greatest value on the right. It will look like the following.
Example Question #11 : Solve One Variable Linear Equations And Inequalities: Ccss.Math.Content.Hsa Rei.B.3
Which of the following provides the complete solution set for given the above inequality?
To solve this problem, first cross-multiply the inequality to eliminate the denominators. Note that while this is an inequality, you can safely multiply by both denominators since both are positive so there is no need to consider flipping the direction of the inequality. The result of this step is:
Then you can combine like terms by subtracting from both sides:
Then to isolate the variable term, subtract from both sides:
Finally, divide both sides by to get the variable alone:
Example Question #1 : Systems Of Inequalities
Solve the following inequality for , round your answer to the nearest tenth.
The first step is to square each side of the inequality.
Now simplify each side.
Now subtract the left side of the inequality to make it zero, so that we can use the quadratic formula.
Now we can use the quadratic formula.
Recall the quadratic formula.
Where , , and , correspond to coefficients in the quadratic equation.
In this case , , and .
Now plug these values into the quadratic equation, and we get.
Now since we are dealing with an inequality, we put the least value on the left side, and the greatest value on the right. It will look like the following.
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