Topic G: Mixed Problems

Carefully read again the Problem Solving Steps in Adult Literacy Fundamentals Mathematics: Book Two, Topic F or ask your instructor for a copy of those pages. Read the problems to help you get a feel for the wording and problem situations you can expect for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Ask your instructor for a list of key words that will point to the operation you should choose.

Exercise 1

Solve these problems using the five problem solving steps. Show your estimation and actual work. Write a sentence answer remembering to use the units. Check your work using the answer key at the end of the exercise.

1. Saika gave her students cinnamon hearts on Valentine’s Day. She bought a box of 1120 cinnamon hearts and gave each student 35 candies, using up the whole box. How many students does she have?
2. Each stamp cost 57 cents. Dolores bought 100 stamps. How much money did she spend on stamps (before taxes)?
3. Etienne planted 30 tomato plants in rows of 5 plants.  How many rows did he plant?
4. There are 8 servings per large economy-size can of fruit. The restaurant ordered 5 cases with 24 cans per case. How many servings of fruit can the restaurant get from this order? (This is a two step problem – first find the total number of cans. Then find the number of servings.)
5. A train traveled 2250 km at a speed of 75 km per hour. How many hours did the trip take?
6. The regular mountain bike costs $499 and the fancy model is $675. How much more do you pay for the fancy mountain bike?
7. The members of the Shiny Wheels Bicycle Club ride at an average speed of 16 km/h. On their weekend trip they rode 2 hours Friday night, 7 hours on Saturday, spent two hours soaking their aching bones at the Hot Springs, and then rode a final five hours on Sunday.  How many kilometres did they ride on this weekend trip?  (2 steps)
8. Last week Mrs. Sanderson drove 29 km on Monday, 42 km on Tuesday, 5 km on Wednesday, and 21 km on Friday.  How far did she drive last week?

Answers to Exercise 1

1. 32 students
2. $57.00
3. 6 rows
4. 960 servings
5. 30 hours
6. $176 more
7. 224 km
8. 97 km