On the second day, the company paved 4 * 2 - 1 = 7 miles. The company has 16 - 7 - 4 = 5 miles of road remaining to pave. They will need 3 * 5 = 15 truckloads of asphalt to pave 5 miles of road. For 15 truckloads, they will need 15 * 2 = 30 bags of gravel. Thus, the company will need 30 / 5 = 6 barrels of pitch to finish the road on the third day.
The answer: 6
Reverse engineering the question: A roadwork company is paving a newly constructed 16-mile road. They use a mixture of pitch and gravel to make the asphalt to pave the road. Each truckloads of asphalt uses two bags of gravel and five times as many bags of gravel as it does barrels of pitch to make. It takes three truckloads of asphalt to pave each mile of road. The company paved 4 miles of road on one day, then one mile less than double that on the second day. How many barrels of pitch will the company need to finish the remaining road on the third day?


Reasoning and answer: He ran the 10 kilometers in a total of 20 + 30 = 50 minutes. Therefore, he ran at a pace of 50 minutes / 10 kilometers = 5 minutes per kilometer.
The answer: 5
What was the question?
Question: TJ ran a 10K race last Saturday. He ran the first half in 20 minutes. He completed the second half in 30 minutes. What was his average time per kilometer?


Tina has already cleaned one key so she has 14 left which take 3 minutes each to clean, 14 x 3 = 42 minutes to clean all the keyboard keys. Her assignment will take 10 minutes to complete, so she needs 42 minutes + 10 minutes = 52 minutes total before dinner.
The answer: 52
Reverse engineering the question: Tina is working on her homework when she realizes she's having a hard time typing out her answers on her laptop because a lot of the keys are sticky. She is trying to get her homework done before dinner, though, so she needs to decide if she has time to clean her keyboard first. Tina knows her assignment will only take 10 minutes to complete. Dinner will be ready at 5:30 p.m. Tina decides to time how long it takes to remove and clean one key and will then multiply that time by how many keys she needs to fix. She counts 15 keys that are sticky and times it to take 3 minutes to clean one. After Tina has cleaned one key, there are 14 left to clean. How many minutes total will it take for Tina to both clean the remaining keys and finish her assignment?


Reasoning and answer: He writes 3 * 50 = 150 pages a week. That means he writes 150 * 52 = 7800 pages of short stories a year. So he writes 7800 + 1200 = 9000 pages a year. So he needs 9000 / 2 = 4500 sheets of paper. That means he needs 4500 / 500 = 9 reams of paper.
The answer: 3
What was the question?
Question: John writes 3 stories every week. Each short story is 50 pages. He also writes a novel that is 1200 pages each year. Each sheet of paper can hold 2 pages. Over 12 weeks, how many reams of paper does he need to buy if a ream contains 500 sheets?


The rate is 270 / 3 = 90 mph. Then it takes an additional 180 / 90 = 2 hours.
The answer: 2
Reverse engineering the question: A train travels 270 miles in 3 hours. At the same rate, how many additional hours would it take to travel an additional 180 miles?


Mario's $18 cut on Monday would have been 50% more expensive on Sunday or $18 * 50% = $9 more expensive. That means he would have paid $9 more on Sunday than what he paid ($18) on Monday or $9 + $18 = $27.
The answer: 27
Reverse engineering the question:
At Mario's barbershop haircuts are 50% more expensive during the weekends. If Mario paid $18 for his last haircut on Monday, how much he would have paid the day before?