Question: A laboratory needs flasks, test tubes, and safety gear to carry out its experiments. They were given a $325 budget for the month. They bought $150 worth of flasks, spent two-thirds of that amount on test tubes, and used half of the test tube cost on safety gear. How many dollars of their budget remained?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: The laboratory spent 2 / 3 * 150 = 300 / 3 = $100 on test tubes. They spent a further 100 / 2 = $50 on safety gear. In all, they spent 150 + 100 + 50 = $300. Thus, 325 - 300 = $25 of the laboratory’s budget remained.
So the answer is 25.


Question: A school cafeteria uses ground mince to cook lasagnas and cottage pies. They make 100 lasagnas, which use 2 pounds of ground mince each, and cottage pies, which use 3 pounds of ground mince each. If the cafeteria has used 500 pounds of ground mince in total, how many cottage pies did they make?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: The cafeteria used 100 lasagnas * 2 pounds of ground mince = 200 pounds of ground mince for the lasagnas. This means they used 500 pounds of ground mince in total – 200 pounds of ground mince for the lasagnas = 300 pounds of ground mince for the cottage pies. So they must have made 300 pounds of ground mince for the cottage pies / 3 pounds of ground mince per cottage pie = 100 cottage pies.
So the answer is 100.


Question: Bianca worked for 12.5 hours last weekend. Celeste worked for twice that amount of time and McClain worked 8.5 hours less than Celeste. How many minutes did the 3 people work in total?
Answer with step-by-step thinking:
Bianca = 12.5 hours. Celeste 2 * 12.5 = 25 hours. McClain = 25 - 8.5 = 16.5 hours. Total + 12.5 + 25 + 16.5 = 54 hours. 54 hours * 60 minutes = 3240 minutes. Bianca, Celeste and McClain worked a total of 3240 minutes last weekend.
So the answer is 3240.