Mathematics Word Problem solving |
Mary has 200 knitted squares. Sue has 5000 knitted squares. Mary makes 20 knitted squares per hour. Sue makes 15 knitted squares per hour. Mary and Sue will start working (and continue to work every hour) to add to their knitted square collections on the same day at the same hour. a) After the first hour, how many knitted squares will Mary have; how many knitted squares will Sue have? After the 2nd hour, 3rd hour? Solutions: Part 1: After one hour Mary : 200 + 20 squares Sue : 5000 + 15 squares After 2 hours Mary: 200 + 40 squares Sue : 5000 + 30 squares After 3 hours Mary: 200 + 60 squares Sue : 500 + 45 squares Part 2: How many hours must they work until they both have the same amount of knitted squares? Solution: The difference between what Sue has from Mary’s is 4800 squares. It is also known that Mary makes 5 squares more per hour than Sue. Since they are now working the same number of hours, it will take Mary this number of hours to catch-up with Sue's 4800 squares: 4800/5 = 960 Thus it will take Mary 960 hours to catch up knitting at 20 squares per hour. Part 3: On the day they have the same amount of knitted squares, how many squares will they each have? Solution: After 960 hours Sue will have 14400 + 5000 squares = 19400 After 960 hours Mary will have 19200 + 200 = 19400 |
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