What’s Goin’ On In Room 133

Posts Tagged ‘algebraic’

Solve each problem by first writing and equation that fits.  You may even want to draw a simple diagram to illustrate the dynamics involved.  Then solve the equation.

EQ 1.  Addie has $825 in her savings account.  She has decided to deposit $65 per month until she has a total of $1,800.  In how many months will this occur?

EQ 2.  YeVale likes skydiving.  Suppose she jumps from an airplane (a perfectly good airplane, mind you) at an altitude of 12,000 feet.  After 42 seconds, she reaches 4,608 feet and she opens her parachute.  What was her average velocity during her descent (freefall)?

EQ 3.  The water level of Lambert Run has risen to 4 inches above its flood stage.  If it continues to rise steadily at 2 inches per hour, how long will it take for the river to be 12 inches above its flood stage?

Rock on, colleagues!

Suppose each student needs 12 minutes to give a report on their project and the class period is 48 minutes long.  How many students will be able to give their report in one class period?  Can you figure that out?  Pretty easy, huh?   Well, what if we let the variable “s” represent that number of students – can you write a simple equation that will fit this example?  

And speaking of food (okay, so I was thinking of food – I’m hungry :0!), suppose one pound of ground beef makes four hamburger patties.  Can you calculate how many pounds of beef would you need make 36 hamburgers?  Sure you can!  Then try writing and solving an equation that fits where you use the variable “x” to represent (or equal = ) the number of pounds of hamburger you need.

Now don’t let those words “solving an equation” scare you – if it does at all.  You know the answer to the question already just by mathematical reasoning.  So if you can do that, you’ve got the basics down pat.  We’ll talk about how to put that in algebraic form when you show me your work next week!

We know about different types of expressions now – first verbal, then numeric and now we know what an algebraic expression is.  We also know how to substitue values (plug in numbers) and evaluate our algebraic expressions if we are told how much ‘x’ is equal to.   We’ll practice with the idea of having a letter variable in our calculations a little more by looking at questions #31 and 32 on page 20.