Assignment: Math 76 OL Chapter 1 part 1.

8 HW
Laura wants to determine the miles-per-gallon rating of her car. She filled the tank when the odometer read 14,951 miles. She then drove her car on a trip. At
the end of the trip, the odometer read 15,259 miles, and it took 11 gallons to refill the tank. How many miles per gallon does her car deliver?
1. Understand the problem.
Read over the problem carefully and fill in the mathematics blueprint.
The odometer reading at the beginning of the trip is 14,951 miles.
The odometer reading at the end of the trip is 15,259 miles.
At the end of the trip, it took 11 gallons to fill up the tank.
Gather the facts
The odomoeter
reading at the start
of the trip is
14,951 miles. The
reading is
15,259 miles at the
end. It takes 11
gallons to fill the tank
after the trip.

What am I asked
to do?
Find out how many
miles per gallon
the car gives.

How do I proceed?

Key points to
remember
Subtract the
I must divide the
distance traveled by odometer reading at
the beginning of the
the number of
trip from the reading
gallons needed to
at the end of the trip
fill the tank.
to find the distance
traveled.

2. Solve and state the answer.

We need to subtract the odometer reading at the beginning of the trip from the reading at the end of the trip.
15,259 14,951 = 308
The distance traveled was 308 miles.
Divide this distance by the number of gallons needed to fill up the tank after the trip.
28
11 308
The miles per gallon delivered by the car is 28 miles per gallon.
3. Check.
We estimate and compare this estimate with our answer.
Original
Value

Estimated
value

Odometer

14,951

15,000

Readings

15,259

15,300

11

10

308

300

Gallons
Distance

30
10 300

Our estimate is 30 miles per gallon. We compare this with our answer, 28 miles per gallon, and see that this is reasonable.