Question: Tom needs to lower a rope down 6 stories.  One story is 10 feet. The only rope being sold is 20 feet long but you lose 25% when lashing them together. How many pieces of rope will he need to buy?
Answer: He needs 10 * 6 = 60 feet. He loses 20 * .25 = 5 feet each time. So he gets 20 - 5 = 15 feet from each piece. That means he needs 60 / 15 = 4 pieces of rope. The answer is 4.
[Question]Lara is a contestant on a fun game show where she needs to navigate an inflated bouncy house obstacle course. First she needs to carry a backpack full of treasure through the obstacle course and set it down on the other side, which she does in 7 minutes and 23 seconds. Second, she needs to crank open the door to the obstacle course so she can go back through, which takes her 73 seconds. After she gets through the door she traverses the obstacle course again and makes it out faster without the backpack, in 5 minutes and 58 seconds. How many seconds total does it take her to complete the obstacle course?
[Answer]It takes Lara 7 minutes and 23 seconds to make it through the obstacle course the first time. 7 minutes x 60 seconds per minute = 420 seconds + 23 seconds = 443 seconds to get through the first part of the obstacle course. The second stage of the obstacle course she completes in 73 seconds + 443 seconds = 516 seconds. It takes 5 minutes and 58 seconds for Lara to get through the obstacle course the second time. 5 minutes x 60 seconds per minute = 300 + 58 seconds = 358 seconds. Combined, it takes Lara 516 + 358 seconds = 874 seconds for Lara to run the whole obstacle course. The answer is 874.
Q: Janet lives in a city built on a grid system. She walks 3 blocks north, then seven times as many blocks west. Then she turns around and walks 8 blocks south and twice as many blocks east in the direction of her home. If Janet can walk 2 blocks/minute, how long will it take her to get home?
A: First, find the total number of blocks south Janet is from her starting point by subtracting the blocks she walked north from the blocks she walked south: 8 blocks - 3 blocks = 5 blocks. Then find the number blocks she walked west: 3 blocks * 7 = 21 blocks. Then find the number of blocks she walked east: 8 blocks * 2 = 16 blocks. Subtract the number of blocks she walked east from the number of blocks she walked west to find how many blocks west of her starting point she is: 21 blocks - 16 blocks = 5 blocks. Add the number of blocks she needs to walk north to the number of blocks she needs to walk east: 5 blocks + 5 blocks = 10 blocks. Finally, divide the distance she needs to walk by her speed to find how long she'll spend walking: 10 blocks / 2 blocks / minute = 5 minutes. The answer is 5.
Question: Chrystal’s vehicle speed is 30 miles per hour. Ascending the mountain decreases its speed by fifty percent, and descending the mountain increases its speed by twenty percent. If the distance going to the top of the mountain is 60 miles and the distance going down to the foot of the mountain is 72 miles, how many hours will Crystal have to pass the whole mountain?
Answer: The vehicle's speed decreases to 30 x 0.50 = 15 miles per hour when ascending to the top of the mountain. So, the total time Crystal will have to spend going to the top of the mountain is 60 / 15 = 4 hours. And the speed of the vehicle increases by 30 x 0.20 = 6 miles per hour when going down to the foot of the mountain. So, the total speed of the vehicle when going down is 30 + 6 = 36 miles per hour. Thus, Chrystal will have to spend 72 / 36 = 2 hours to descend from the mountain. Therefore, the total hours she will spend to pass the whole mountain is 4 + 2 = 6 hours. The answer is 6.
[Question]There are 4 alligators living on a golf course in Florida. If the number of alligators doubles every six months, how many alligators will there be at the end of a year?
[Answer]First figure out how many times the alligator population doubles in one year by dividing the number of months in a year by the number of months it takes the population to double: 12 months / 6 months = 2. The alligator population doubles twice. Now double the alligator population once: 4 alligators * 2 = 8 alligators. Now double it again: 8 alligators * 2 = 16 alligators. The answer is 16.
[Question]Beth went shopping. She bought 15 more cans of peas than twice the number of cans of corn that she bought. If she bought 35 cans of peas, how many cans of corn did she buy?
[Answer]
Let the number of cans of corn she bought be a. Twice the number of corn cans is 2 * a = 2a. The 35 cans of peas were 15 more than twice the number of corn cans which means 15 + 2a = 35. Solving the equation: 2a = 20. a = 20 / 2 = 10 cans of corn. The answer is 10.