Number Word Problems
Number" word problems are fairly contrived, but they're also fairly standard, so you should learn how to handle them. After all, the point of these problems isn't their relation to "real life", but your ability to extract the math from the English.
Number" word problems are fairly contrived, but they're also fairly standard, so you should learn how to handle them. After all, the point of these problems isn't their relation to "real life", but your ability to extract the math from the English.
- The sum of two consecutive integers is 15. Find the numbers.
- They've given me two pieces of information here. First, I know that I am adding two numbers, and their sum is fifteen. Second, I know that the numbers are nice neat round numbers (like –3 or 6), not messy ones (like –4.628 or 17/32), and that the second number is one more than the first. This last piece of information comes from the fact that "consecutive integers" (or "consecutive whole numbers", if they're restricting the possibilities to only positive numbers) are one unit apart. Examples of "consecutive integers" would be –12 and –11, 1 and 2, and 99 and 100. Using these facts, I can set up the translation. I will represent the first number by "n". Then the second number has to be "n + 1". Their sum is then:
- n + (n + 1) = 15 2n + 1 = 15 2n = 14 n = 7 Copyright © Elizabeth Stapel 2000-2011 All Rights Reserved
- "The numbers are 7 and 8."
- The product of two consecutive negative even integers is 24. Find the numbers.
- They have told me quite a bit about these two numbers: the numbers are even and they are negative. (The fact that they are negative may help if I come up with two solutions — a positive and a negative — so I'll know which one to pick.) Since even numbers are two apart (for example, –4 and –2 or 10 and 12), then I also know that the second number is two greater than the first. I also know that, when I multiply the two numbers, I will get 24. In other words, letting the first number be "n" and the second number be "n + 2", I have:
- (n)(n + 2) = 24 n2 + 2n = 24 n2 + 2n – 24 = 0 (n + 6)(n – 4) = 0
- The numbers are –6 and –4.
- Twice the larger of two numbers is three more than five times the smaller, and the sum of four times the larger and three times the smaller is 71. What are the numbers?
- the larger number: x the smaller number: y twice the larger: 2x three more than five times the smaller: 5y + 3 relationship between ("is"): 2x = 5y + 3 four times the larger: 4x three times the smaller: 3y relationship between ("sum of"): 4x + 3y = 71
- Now I have two equations in two variables:
- 2x = 5y + 3 4x + 3y = 71
- x = (5/2)y + (3/2)
- 4[ (5/2)y + (3/2) ] + 3y = 71 10y + 6 + 3y = 71 13y + 6 = 71 13y = 65 y = 65/13 = 5
- x = (5/2)y + (3/2) x = (5/2)(5) + (3/2) x = (25/2) + (3/2) x = 28/2 = 14
- The larger number is 14, and the smaller number is 5.