Question: Vincent has 72 inches of rope that he wants to use for a project, but he needs to cut it into smaller pieces first. He cuts it into 12 equal length pieces, but then he realizes it's too short, so he ties three pieces together. The knots then make each piece 1 inch shorter. How long are his pieces of rope after all this?
Answer: Each small piece is 6 inches because 72 / 12 = 6. Each piece is then 5 inches long after the knots are tied because 6 - 1 = 5. The three pieces tied together are now 15 inches long because 5 x 3 = 15. The answer is 15.

Question: Billy can spit a watermelon seed 30 inches. Madison can spit a watermelon seed 20% farther than Billy. Ryan can spit a watermelon seed 50% shorter than Madison. How far can Ryan spit a watermelon seed?
Answer: Madison can spit a seed 20% farther than Billy's 30 inches so that's .20 * 30 = 6 inches farther. Billy spits a seed 30 inches and Madison can spit 6 inches farther for a total of 30 + 6 = 36 inches. Ryan can spit a seed 50% shorter than Madison's 36 inches for a total of .50 * 36 = 18 inches. The answer is 18.

Question: The total distance between 2 towns is 200 miles. Roger and his friend drove 1/4 of the total distance, taking 1 hour to do so. They take lunch for another 1 hour and then drove the remaining distance going at the same speed as before. What's the total amount of time, in hours, Roger and his friend took to travel between the two towns?
Answer: When they covered 1 / 4 of the total distance, they were 1 / 4 * 200 = 50 miles away from the starting point. The total distance remaining is 200 - 50 = 150 miles. If they took 1 hour to travel 50 miles, their speed was 50 / 1 = 50 miles per hour. If Roger was driving at 50 miles per hour, then the total time it took him to travel 150 miles is 150 / 50 = 3 hours. The total amount of time taken for the whole journey is 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 hours. The answer is 5.

Question: Lee mows one lawn and charges $33. Last week he mowed 16 lawns and three customers each gave him a $10 tip. How many dollars did Lee earn mowing lawns last week?
Answer:
33 * 16 = $528. 3 * 10 = $30. 528 + 30 = $558. Lee earned $558 mowing lawns last week. The answer is 558.