Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [word-problem]

A word problem is an exercise with its main challenge being in translation from words to mathematical concepts and language including symbols and formulas. This tag is not about the unrelated topic in group theory.

Word problems have been posed since the earliest mathematics exercises.

Couching an application of mathematical reasoning in terms of everyday objects and activities, the genre of word problems has attracted considerable analysis for education theory over the decades.

It has also garnered a fair amount of parody.

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How long will it take Marie to saw another board into 3 pieces?

So this is supposed to be really simple, and it's taken from the following picture: Text-only: It took Marie $10$ minutes to saw a board into $2$ pieces. If she works just as fast, how long will it take for her to saw another board into $3$…
yuritsuki
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V.I. Arnold says Russian students can't solve this problem, but American students can -- why?

In a book of word problems by V.I Arnold, the following appears: The hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle (in a standard American examination) is 10 inches, the altitude dropped onto it is 6 inches. Find the area of the triangle. American…
Eli Rose
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Is there another simpler method to solve this elementary school math problem?

I am teaching an elementary student. He has a homework as follows. There are $16$ students who use either bicycles or tricycles. The total number of wheels is $38$. Find the number of students using bicycles. I have $3$ solutions as…
kiss my armpit
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What is the most expensive item I could buy with £50?

I was set the following question during the discrete mathematics module of my degree and despite my instructor explaining his working to me I still disagree with the answer he says is correct. Can someone please help me either understand where my…
Sam
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What is the answer to this infamous "Common Core" question?

The following question (number 15 of this test) has become infamous as a poor "Common Core" question. What is the correct answer? Juanita wants to give bags of stickers to her friends. She wants to give the same number of stickers to each friend.…
Eric M. Schmidt
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Sailors, monkey and coconuts

Five sailors and a monkey were shipwrecked on a deserted island, and they spent the first day gathering coconuts for food, piled them all up together and went to bed. But when they were all asleep one sailor woke up, and he thought that there might…
Adi Dani
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How many cows are there?

In a field, the grass increases in a constant rate. $17$ cows can eat all the grass in the field in $30$ days. $19$ cows can eat all the grass in $24$ days. Suppose, a group of cows started eating grass for $6$ days. Then $4$ cows are sold. The…
Christopher Marlowe
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Train from Nagpur to Raipur

A train departs from Nagpur rail station every 1 hour. It takes exactly 5 hours to arrive to Raipur rail station. Another train departs from Raipur 30 minutes after the departure of the first Nagpur train and also every 1 hour. The Raipur trains…
Pradeep Suny
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How long to catch up to a stream started 1 hour ago at 1.5x speed?

I opened a stream that started an hour ago. Not wanting to miss anything, I started from the beginning and set it to 1.5x speed. How long will it take for me to catch up? I know that it will take 40 minutes to watch the hour that I missed ($ \frac…
Kevin Fee
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Formula(s) for sharing multiple golden geese

Please have mercy on a simple, non-math person like me. I'm trying to find a formula (or even be told it's impossible) for a unique and difficult compound interest scenario pertaining to the Golden Goose. At least it's unique and difficult to…
LCIII
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Noah and his ark - inequalities

By spending an emerald, Noah turns a swan into a frog or a duck into a lizard, and by spending a ruby, he turns a swan into a duck or a frog into a lizard. Today he spent 20 emeralds and 23 rubies, and the number of frogs increased by 5. How and how…
Eduardo Juan Ramirez
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How to minimize studying using mathematics?

A friend asked me this question earlier today, and it made me wonder how to come up with a general solution (where each variable is an integer): I have a vocabulary test tomorrow at school. On it, there will be $W$ terms listed, and I will have…
Cisplatin
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Ratio. Number of sheep and chickens

At a farm, the ratio of the number of chickens to the number of sheep was 5:2. After the farmer sold 15 chickens, there was an equal number of chickens and sheep. How many chickens and sheep were there at the farm in the end? My work: Number of…
RukaiPlusPlus
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A kid on a rolling escalator

A kid is walking up a downward-moving escalator with a constant speed and counts 72 stairs. Then the kid walks down with the same speed and now counts 36 stairs. Being confused, the kid waits until the mall closes and the escalator is still, so he…
Marius Stephant
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How far has a chasing wasp flown as her target walks around a square?

I take a walk each morning along the sides of a square; each side is one mile. I start at one corner and walk at a constant speed. As I start on the walk, an unfriendly wasp always starts at the center of the square and starts chasing me, always…
Mark Fischler
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