Answer this question:Valerie needs to put stamps on the envelopes she is about to mail. She has thank you cards for each of her grandmother, uncle and aunt for the birthday presents they sent. She also has to pay the water bill and the electric bill separately. She wants to send three more mail-in rebates than she does bills and she has twice as many job applications as rebates to mail. How many stamps does she need if everything needs 1 stamp except the electric bill, which needs 2?
Valerie has to send a thank you card to each of 3 people, so she has 3 * 1 = 3 thank you cards to mail. She has 2 bills to mail. She has 3 more rebates than bills, so 3 + 2 = 5 mail - in rebates to mail. She has twice as many job applications as rebates, so she has 2 * 5 = 10 applications to mail. She has 3 + 2 + 5 + 10 = 20 pieces of mail to send. The electric bill needs an extra stamp, so she needs 20 + 1 = 21 stamps.
The answer is 21.

Answer this question:Frank picked 36 apples. Susan picked 3 times as many apples as Frank. If Susan gave out half of her apples, and Frank sold a third of his, how many in total do they have left?
Susan picked 3 times as much as 36 which is 3 * 36 = 108 apples. She gave out half which is 108 * (1 / 2) = 54 apples. She now has 108 - 54 = 54 apples. Frank sold a third of 36 which is 36 * (1 / 3) = 12 apples. Frank now has 36 - 12 = 24 apples. Altogether they now have 54 + 24 = 78 apples.
The answer is 78.

Answer this question:During one day, there are 4 boat trips through the lake. The boat can take up to 12 people during one trip. How many people can the boat transport in 2 days?
During each boat trip, there can be 12 people onboard, so during 4 boat trips, there can be 4 * 12 = 48 people in total. During two days the boat can transport a total of 48 * 2 = 96 people.
The answer is 96.

Answer this question:Jerry has a bunch of half-empty soda cans on his desk. He needs to drain all of them and put them in the recycling bin. He can carry four cans at once, and it takes him 30 seconds to drain those 4 cans. It takes him ten seconds each way to walk to the sink and recycling bin and then back to his desk. If there are 28 cans on Jerry's desk, how long does it take him to throw all of them away?
Jerry has to walk to the sink / recycling bin 28 cans / 4 cans per trip = 7 trips. The round trip takes 10 seconds per way * 2 ways = 20 seconds. Counting the time he spent pouring out the cans and the time the round trip took, he spent 20 seconds per trip + 30 seconds per trip = 50 seconds per trip. With 7 round trips, he spent 50 seconds per trip * 7 trips = 350 seconds.
The answer is 350.