Question

Mr Whitney is planning on taking his 18 students on a hike to gather leaves. Each student will be asked to collect 5 oak leaves ,3elm leaves,7maple leaves,and 6 red ash leaves. Write and solve an equation that can be used to find the total number of leaves,n,that will be collected. Explain how to use estimation to check the reasonableness of your answer from part A.

Answer 1

Each student will collect 21 leaves (5+3+7+6). Therefore 18 x 21 = n or 18 x 21 = 378 leaves.

You can round the amount of leaves to about 20 and the amount of people to about 20 to get an estimate of about 400 leaves. 20 x 20 is a simple problem that doesn't need a calculator. 400 is very reasonably close to 378.