Age Problem

Mark is 10 yrs younger than Larry: M=L-10

"Larry's age 8 years from now will exceed twice Mark's age 3 years ago by 4 years. How old is each
now?".

L+8=2(M-3)+4

L+8=2((L-10)-3)+4

Solve for L: L=30 and M=20

Therefore, Larry is 30 and Mark is 20.

Check the criteria:

Larry's age 8 yrs from now=38

Twice Mark's age 3 yrs ago=2(20-3)=34

Will exceed by 4 years: 38-34=4

There ya' go....QED.

Distance Problem

A bus and a car leave the same place and traveled in opposite directions. If the bus is traveling at
50 mph and the car is traveling at 55 mph, in how many hours will they be 210 miles apart?

Solution:
Step 1: Set up a rtd table.

r t d
bus      
car      

Step 2: Fill in the table with information given in the question.

If the bus is traveling at 50 mph and the car is traveling at 55 mph, in how many hours will they
be 210 miles apart?
Let t = time when they are 210 miles apart.

r t d
bus 50 t  
car 55 t  

Step 3: Fill in the values for d using the formula d = rt

r t d
bus 50 t 50t
car 55 t 55t

Step 4: Since the total distance is 210, we get the equation:

50t + 55t = 210

105t = 210

Isolate variable t

Answer: They will be 210 miles apart in 2 hours.

Work Problem

A tank can be filled by pipe A in 3 hours and by pipe B in 5 hours. When the tank is full, it can be drained
by pipe C in 4 hours. if the tank is initially empty and all three pipes are open, how many hours will it
take to fill up the tank?

Solution:

Step 1: Assign variables:

Let x = time taken to fill up the tank

Step 2: Use the formula:

Since pipe C drains the water it is subtracted.

Step 3: Solve the equation

The LCM of 3, 4 and 5 is 60

Multiply both sides with 60

Answer: The time taken to fill the tank is hours.

Mixture problem

 Let x be the weights, in Kilograms, of pure water to be added. Let y be the weight, in
Kilograms, of the 10% solution. Hence

x + 100 = y

 Let us now express the fact that the amount of salt in the pure water (which 0) plus the
amount of salt in the 30% solution is equal to the amount of salt in the final saline
solution at 10%.

0 + 30% 100 = 10% y

 Substitute y by x + 100 in the last equation and solve.

30% 100 = 10% (x + 100)

  Solve for x.

x = 200 Kilograms.

Word Problem

With algebra, the solution is easy. The only problem is to convert the above sentence into
equations, because equations are what we need to use algebra. How is this?

S=10+B

S+1=2(B+1)

That is a direct translation of the word problem. I used S to represent Suzy's age (this year), and
B for Billy's age. I could use other letters, but these are easier to remember. Do you see how this
translation is done? "Suzy is ten years older than Billy" is an equation (S=10+B), but is in words
instead of symbols. "Next year she will be twice as old as Billy" is a little more complicated, but
is just another equation (S+1=2(B+1)).

The translation process seldom gets much more difficult than the above. But, you may have to
weed out extra information. If I had started the word problem with, "Suzy is six inches taller than
Billy, and...," you are getting extra info which has nothing to do with the problem. You would
have an extra equation (Z=6+L, where Z is Suzy's height, and L is Billy's height). You would
find that this equation does not affect the other two equations, at all. You could write down this
equation, but you would end up solving the other two equations.
 Harvest Problems

As you know, export rice price is on the rise : export rice prices have doubled between february
2007 and february 2008 to reach near historical levels with 40 eurocents/kg. Thus creating
serious food problems in the many poor regions of the world. If a farmer harvests his rice today,
he will get 1200 kg of rice for a market price of 40 eurocents/kg. However, if the farmer decides
to wait to sell his rice, his harvest will gain 100 kg per week, wich is great! But the rice market
price is falling and for each week he is waiting, the price is reduced by 2 eurocents/kg. When
should our farmer harvest his rice to maximise his profit (maximum profit)?

The following table summarizes the situation:

If the farmer waits 4 weeks to harvest his rice, he can earn a maximum profit, which means
51200 cents (or 512 Euros). But if he waits 5 weeks, he will earn only 51000 cents (or 510
Euros). Conclusion, over 4 weeks, the farmer's gain will be less and less from one week to the
next one. Let us try to explain all this with a very nice system of equations :

Q(x) = Total harvest quantity (kg)

x = number of weeks waiting

Q(x) = 1200 kg + x . 100 kg/week

P1kg(x) = Price per kg

P1kg(x) = 40 cents - 2 cents . x

Ptotal(x) = Total harvest price

Ptotal(x) = Q(x) . P1kg(x)

= (1200 + 100x) . (40 - 2x)

= -200x2 + 1600x + 48000

We must now find the number of weeks the farmer has to wait before harvesting in order to
maximize the function Ptotal(x). In other words, we must find the x-value that simultaneously
makes the first derivative zero and the second derivative negative.