Question

Each morning a deli worker has to make several pies and peel a bucket of potatoes. on Monday it took the worker 2 h to make the pies and an average of 1.5 min to peel each potato. on Tuesday the worker finished the work in the amount of time but it took 2.5 h to make the pies and an average of 1 min to peel each potato. about how many potatoes are in a bucket?

• what qualities do you know and how are they related to each other?
• how can you use the known and unknown quantities to write an equation for this situation?

Answer 1

Let the number of Potatoes = P

On Monday the time spent was 2 hours + 1.5*P minutes
Convert the time to make the pies into minutes = 120 minutres
Therefore on Monday the worker took

120 + 1.5P minutes

On Tuesday the worker took 2.5 hours (150 minutes) + 1minute x P
ie
150 + P minutes

We are told that the times are the same therefore
120 + 1.5P = 150 + P
subtract P from both sides of the equation
120 + 0.5P = 150
Subtract 120 from both sides of the equation
0.5P = 30

Therefore P = 30/0.5 = 60

There are 60 potatoes in the bucket.