Marissa used a total of 4.5 - 1 = 3.5 feet of ribbon to the boxes. Thus, there were 3.5 / 0.7 = 5 boxes.
The answer: 5
Reverse engineering the question: Marissa has 4.5 feet of ribbon that she wants to use to tie some boxes. If 1 foot of ribbon is left after Marissa uses 0.7 feet of ribbon to tie each box, find out how many boxes she tied?


Reasoning and answer: In the first fish tank, there are 7 goldfish + 8 beta fish = 15 fish. The second fish tank therefore has 15 fish in the first tank * 2 = 30 fish. So the third tank has 30 fish in the second fish tank / 3 = 10 fish.
The answer: 10
What was the question?
Question: Susan has 3 fish tanks to fill. 1 fish tank contains 7 goldfish and 8 beta fish. The second fish tank contains twice as many fish as the first tank and the third fish tank has a third of the number of fish in the second fish tank. How many fish are in the third fish tank?


Two dozens of doughnuts are equal to 2 x 12 = 24 doughnuts. Since 8 doughnuts were eaten, therefore 24 - 8 = 16 doughnuts are left.
The answer: 16
Reverse engineering the question: A box holds 2 dozen doughnuts. If the family ate 8 doughnuts, how many doughnuts are left?


Reasoning and answer: First find the time to drive to the airport: 10 minutes * 5 = 50 minutes. Then find the time it takes to get through security: 15 minutes * 3 = 45 minutes. Then find the time Mary spends waiting for the plane to take off: 20 minutes * 2 = 40 minutes. Then add the time to each step to find the total time: 10 minutes + 50 minutes + 15 minutes + 45 minutes + 20 minutes + 40 minutes = 180 minutes. Then divide that amount by the number of minutes per hour to cover the total time to hours: 180 minutes / 60 minutes / hour = 3 hours.
The answer: 3
What was the question?
Question: Mary is going on a business trip. It takes 10 minutes for her Uber to get to her house and 5 times longer to get to the airport. It takes 15 minutes to check her bag and three times as long to get through security. Then she has to wait for 20 minutes for her flight to start boarding and twice as long before the plane is ready to take off. How many hours will this process take total?


There are 24 people on the committee and she wants 2 sandwiches per person so that's 24 * 2 = 48 sandwiches. She can buy the croissants by the dozen and she needs 48 croissants so she needs 48 / 12 = 4 dozen croissants. A dozen croissants cost $8.00 and she needs 4 dozens so that will costs 8 * 4 = $32.00.
The answer: 32
Reverse engineering the question: For the gala luncheon planning committee, Margaret wants to serve chicken salad sandwiches using mini croissants. She wants there to be enough food that each person on the committee can have 2 sandwiches each. Her bakery offers 12 minis croissants for $8.00. There are 24 people on the committee. How much will she spend on croissants?


One hour is 60 minutes, so there can be 60 / 15 = 4 different sets of actors. This means, that during one hour there can be 4 * 5 = 20 different actors in the show.
The answer: 20
Reverse engineering the question:
In a show, there can be 5 actors at a time. Every actor is in the show for about 15 minutes, and then another 5 actors come in. How many actors can there be on the show in 1 hour?