ll Word Problems For many students, solving word problems is a frustrating experience. They require you to translate the question before you can even do the math. The examples and the exercises in this chapter will show you how to handle the full range of word problems that are tested. You will develop an instinct for translating words into math, setting the right variables, and finally solving for the answer. Experience is the best guide. EXAMPLE 1: The sum of three consecutive integers is 72. What is the largest of these three integers? ‘The most important technique in solving word problems is to let a variable be one of the things you don’t know. In this problem, we don’t know any of the three integers, so we let the smallest one be x. It doesn’t matter which number we set as x, as long as we're consistent throughout the problem. So if x is the smallest, then our consecutive integers are uxbLhx42 Because they sum to 72, we can make an equation: xH(xF +4 2=72 3x4 3=72 3x = 69 x=B ‘And because x is the smallest, our three consecutive integers must be 23,24, 25 The largest one is[ 5} SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 90THE COLL, What if we had let x be the largest integer? Our three integers wouldve been x-2x-1x And our solution would’ve looked like this: (x-2)4@-1 4x22 3x-3=72 3x = 75 x=25 And because x was set to be the largest of the three integers this time, we're already at the answer! ‘On SAT word problems, think about which unknown you want to set as a variable. Often times, that unknown will be what the question is asking for. Other times, it will be an unknown you specifically choose to make the problem easier to set up and solve. And sometimes, as was the case in Example 1, it doesn’t matter which tunknown you pick; you'll end up with the same answer with the same effort EXAMPLE 2: One number is 3 times another number. If they sum to 44, what is the larger of the two numbers? In this problem, we want to set x to be the smaller of the two numbers. That way, the two numbers can be expressed a5 xand 3x If we let x be the larger of the two, we would have to work with x xand 5 and fractions are yucky. Setting up our equation, Be careful—we’re not done yet! The question asks for the larger of the two, so we have to multiply x by 3 to get [33] EXAMPLE 3: What is a number such that the square of the number is equal to-2.7% of its reciprocal? Let the number we're looking for be x. Multiply both sides by x to isolate it, Cube root both sides. an SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 91CHAPTER 11_WORD PROBLEMS Let xbe Albert's age now. We could've assigned x to be Henry's age, but as we mentioned earlier, assigning the variable to be what the question is asking for is typically the faster route. Now at this point, some of you might be thinking of assigning another variable to Henry’s age. While that would certainly work, it would only add more steps to the solution. Try to stick to one variable unless the question clearly calls for more. If Albert is x years old now, then Henry must be x ~ 7 years old. Five years from now, Albert will be x +5and Henry will be x ~ 2 years old. x45 =2%r-2) x45—20-4 ‘The problem already gives usa variable f to work with. We want to equate Jake's distance run with Amy's Jake's distance: 60 “Amy's distance: 120(10) + 20(¢ — 10) 20(10) + 20(¢ 10) 200 + 20 — 200 Let x be the number of scientists. Then the number of microscopes is ? the number of centrifuges is ee and the number of freezers is 5 4 ‘Multiply both sides by 12 to get rid of the fractions, 45452 3x tax + 6x 13x x 92 SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 92THE COLLI EXAMPLE 7: Markand Kevin own 4 and 3 ofthe books on a shel, respectively Lori owns the rest ofthe books. If Kevin owns 9 more books than Mark, how many books does Lori own? Let x be the total number of books. Mark then has Mark, s 1 rteaksand Kevinhas Ixhooks Kevin owns 9 more than 1 poe Multiplying both sides by 12, 4x — 3x = 108 x= 108 Te tot er f books 108, Mako} 108 = 27 books an Kev wns 108 = 36s. Lon rust then own 108-27 36 ~ []books. EXAMPLES: A group of friends wants to split the cost of renting a cabin equally. Ifeach friend pays $130, they will have $10 too much. If each friend pays $120, they will have $50 too little. How much does it cost torent the cabin? We have two unknowns in this problem. We'll let the number of people in the group be n and the cost of renting a cabin be c. From the information given, we can come up with two equations (make sure you see the reasoning behind them): 130m — 10 =e 120n + 50 =e In the first equation, 130 represents the total amount the group pays, but because that’s 10 dollars too much, we need to subtract 10 to arrive at the cost of rent, c. In the second equation, 120n represents the tolal amount the group pays, but this time it's 50 dollars too little, so we need to add 50 to arrive at c. Substituting c from the first equation into the second, we get 120n +50 = 130n ~ 10 10 = ~60 n=6 So there are 6 friends in the group. And ¢ = 130n ~ 10 = 130-6 ~10 = 770 The cost of renting the cabin is [770]. 93, SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 93CHAPTER 11_WORD PROBLEMS “EXAMPLES: Of the 200 ellybeans in jar, 70% are green and the rest are red. How many green jellybeans. must be removed so that 60% of the remaining jellybeans are green? The answer is NOT 20. You can’t just take 10% of the green jellybeans away because as you do that, the total number feibeans ao ges down. Wefist nd hat here are Z x 200 ~ 140 ren jl We neo remove x of them so that 60% of what's left is green: green jellybeans left total jellybeans left wo-x_ 6 20-x 10 Cross multiplying, 10(140 — x) = 6(200 ~ x) 1,400 — 10x = 1,200 — 6x 200 — 4x x=50 [50] green fellybeans need tobe removed. EXAMPLE 10: Altogether, ‘David ahd Robert have 120 baseball cards, David gives Robert one third of his ‘cards and then 10 more cards, Rabett now has five times as many cards as David. How many cards did Robert have originally? lige Solution 1: This question is really tough and tricky. When David gives Robert some of his cards, David loses at the same time Robert gains. We could set a variable for David and another variable for Robert, but that solution isa little messier (see Solution 2). Instead, let’s work backwards. If x is the number of cards David ends up with, then Robert ends up with 5x cards. Because there are 120 cards altogether, x+5r=120 6x = 120 r=20 So David has 20 cards and Robert has 100 cards at the end. Let's rollback another transaction. David had given Robert 10 cards. So before that happened, David must have had 20 + 10 = 30 cards. Rollback another transaction and we see that David had given a third of his cards away to get down to the 30 that we just calculated. Well if he had given away a third, then the 30 he had left must have represented two-thirds of the cards he had at the start. Let d be the number of cards David had at the start. SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409a THE COLLEGE PANDA So David had 45 cards at the start, which means Robert musthave had 120 45 — [75]cands at the start Solution 2: Let x be the number of cards David starts with and y be the number of cards Robert starts with. Here are the equations I would set up: xty= 120 1 1 yet 5x +10 =5(x— 5x 10) Multiplying the second equation by 3, +y = 120 3y +x $30 = 15x — 5x 150 Shifting things over, xty=120 9x ~3y = 180 At this point, we can use substitution or elimination. I'm going to use substitution, From the first equation, x = 120 — y. Plugging this into the second equation, 9(120—y) ~ 3y = 180 1080 ~ 12y = 180 ~12y = ~900 y=[75 95 SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 95CHAPTER 11_ WORD PROBLEMS CHAPTER EXERCISE: Answers for this chapter start on page 277. Acalculator should NOT be used on the following questions. Ei Se aha Which of the following represents the square of the sum of x and y, decreased by the product of xand y? A) Obey B) ty 3 © &+yP-(4+y) D) (xt yP oxy ‘Ona 100 cm ruler, lines are drawn at 10, X, and 98 cm. The distance between the lines at X and 98 cm is three times the distance between the lines at X and 10m. What is the value of X? If 5 is added to the square root of x, the result is 9. What is the value of x +2? A grocery store sells tomatoes in boxes of 4 or 10. If Melanie buys x boxes of 4 and y boxes of 10, where x > Land y > 1, fora total of 60 tomatoes, what is one possible value of x? 96 SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 A retail store has monthly fixed costs of $3,000 and monthly salary costs of $2,500 for each ‘employee. If the store hires x employees for an entire year, which of the following equations represents the store’s total cost c, in dollars, for the year? A) c= 3,004 2,5002 B) c= 12(3,000 + 2,502) ©) © = 12(3,000) + 2,500x D) ¢=3,000 + 12(2,500r) Susie buys 2 pieces of salmon, each weighing x pounds, and 1 piece of trout, weighing y pounds, where x and y are integers. The salmon cost $3.50 per pound and the trout cost $5 per pound. If the total cost of the fish was $77, which of the following could be the value of y? Aa BS o6 b) 7 A calculator is allowed on the following questions. If 75% of 68 is the same as 85% of n, what is the value of n? 96THE COLLEGE PANDA ‘The Pirates won exactly 4 of their first 15 games. ‘They then played N remaining games and won, all of them. If they won exactly half of all the games they played, what is the value of N? Alice and Julie start with the same number of pens. After Alice gives 16 of her pens to Julie, Julie then has two times as many pens as Alice does. How many pens did Alice have at the start? Ata Hong Kong easing cote he students take debate, 5 of the students take writing, and i of the students take science. The rest take math. If 33 students take math, what is, the total number of students at the learning, center? A) 60 B) 66 On D) 78 ” SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 an has 20 football cards, and Jason has 44 baseball cards. They agree to trade such that Jason gives lan 2 baseball cards for every card lan gives to Jason. After how many such trades will lan and Jason each have an equal number of cards? Ay B) 10 on bd) 2 BSS aS SSS ae If 3 is subtracted from 3 times the number x, the result is 21. What is the result when 8 is added to half of x? Aji BS a8 D) 12 eS See Ata store, the price ofa tie isk dollars less than three times the price of a shirt. Ifa shirt costs $40 and a tie costs $30, what is the value of k? 97CHAPTER 11_WORD PROBLEMS A bakery gave out coupons to celebrate its grand opening. Fach coupon was worth either $1, $3, or $5. Twice as many $1 coupons were given out as §3 coupons, and 3 times as many $3 coupons ‘were given out as $5 coupons. The total value of all the coupons given out was $360. How many $3 coupons were given out? A) 40 B) 45 oC 48 D) 54 Alex, Bob, and Carl all collect seashells. Bob has half as many seashells as Carl. Alex has three ‘times as many seashells as Bob. If Alex and Bob together have 60 seashells, how many seashells does Carl have? AS B) 20 oC 9 Db) 40 SAT & IG BOOK STORE 01227746409 98, 98