Question

Harold filled his swimming pool over the weekend. The pool has a capacity of 540 gallons. Harold put in 180 gallons of water on Saturday. The garden hose that Harold used supplies 9 gallons of water per minute. How long did it take for Harold to fill the pool to capacity on Sunday? Define a variable for the unknown quantity. Write and solve an equation to answer the question.

Answer 1

Pool Capacity = 540 gallons

Saturday = 180 gallons

Hose water rate = 9 gallons per minute

540 = 180+9m

Where m is the number of minutes (independent variable)

Solve for m :

540-180 = 9m

360 = 9m

360/9= m

40 =m

It will take 40 minutes.