[Question]Sam, Sid, and Steve brought popsicle sticks for their group activity in their Art class. Sam has thrice as many as Sid, and Sid has twice as many as Steve. If Steve has 12 popsicle sticks, how many popsicle sticks can they use for their Art class activity?
[Answer]Sid has 12 x 2 = 24 sticks. Sam has 24 x 3 = 72 sticks. Thus, they have 24 + 72 + 12 = 108 popsicle sticks. The answer is 108.

[Question]There have been 15 "Where's Waldo?" books published. Each book has 30 puzzles to find Waldo. The average person takes 3 minutes to find Waldo in a puzzle. How long would it take to find every Waldo?
[Answer]There have been 450 puzzles because 15 x 30 = 450. It would take 1,350 minutes to find all the Waldo's because 450 x 3 = 1,350. The answer is 1350.

[Question]Calvin has been saving his hair clippings after each haircut to make a wig for his dog. He has gotten 8 haircuts and knows that he needs 2 more to reach his goal. What percentage towards his goal is he?
[Answer]His goal is 10 haircuts because 8 + 2 = 10. He is 80% there because (8 / 10) x 100 = 80. The answer is 80.

[Question]Karen is planning writing assignments for her fifth grade class. She knows each short-answer question takes 3 minutes to answer, each paragraph takes 15 minutes to write, and each essay takes an hour to write. If Karen assigns 2 essays and 5 paragraphs, how many short-answer questions should she assign if she wants to assign 4 hours of homework total?
[Answer]
First figure out how many minutes 4 hours is: 4 hours * 60 minutes / hour = 240 minutes. Then figure out how long the two essays will take by multiplying the time per essay by the number of essays: 2 essays * 1 hour / essay * 60 minutes / hour = 120 minutes. Use the same method to find the total time spent writing paragraphs: 15 minutes / paragraph * 5 paragraphs = 75 minutes. Now subtract the time spent on essays and paragraphs from the total time to find the time spent on all the short answer questions: 240 minutes - 120 minutes - 75 minutes = 45 minutes. Finally, divide the total time spent on short - answer questions by the time per question to find the number of questions: 45 minutes / 3 minutes / question = 15 questions. The answer is 15.