Real World Math Problems A
An architect was building a hotel downtown. He built it with fifty-four rooms total. If there were six rooms on each story, how many stories tall is the hotel?
Division. Keywords are "on each story." Answer is 9 stories tall.
Olivia had thirty five nickels. If she put them into stacks with five in each stack, how many stacks could she make?
Division. Keywords are "in each stack." Answer is 7 stacks of nickels.
Three classes were trying to raise $1,342 for new science equipment. If class A raised $881 and class B raised $210, how much money does class C need to raise to meet the goal?
Addition and Subtraction. Keywords are "how much does class C need to raise." This is asking for what is remaining. 881 + 210 = 1,091. 1,342 - 1,091 = 251. Answer is $251.00
Charlie borrowed $45.00 from David. If David had $89, how much does he have now?
Subtraction. Keywords are "how much does he have now." This is asking for how much is remaining. Answer is $44.00
A donation center received 921 cans of corn, 754 cans of peas, and 380 cans of green beans. How many more cans of corn than cans of green beans did they receive?
Subtraction. Keyword is "How many more." Answer is 541 cans.
For a new year's party 444 red balloons, 452 green balloons and 833 white balloons were used. What is the total number of balloons used?
Addition. Keyword is "total number." Answer is 1729 balloons.
Victor has 6 action figures he wants to display. If each shelf in his room can hold three figures, how many shelves does he need?
Division. Keywords are "each shelf." Answer is 2 shelves.
Kaleb was playing ring toss at the carnival. He gets two rings per game, if he played 8 games. how many rings did he use?
Multiplication. Keywords are "per game." Answer is 16 rings.
For Katie's birthday, she received sixteen dollars from her friends. If each friend gave her two dollars, how many friends gave her money?
Division. Keywords are "each friend." Answer is 8 friends gave her two dollars.
At a hotdog eating contest, in the first round 654 hotdogs were eaten. In round two, another 316 were eaten and in the final round 168 more were eaten. What is the sum of all the hotdogs eaten?
Addition. Keywords are "more" and "sum." Answer is 1,138 total hotdogs.
In a math book, there were 928 problems in chapter one, 709 in chapter two and 533 in chapter three. How many problems are there all together in the first 3 chapters?
Addition. Keywords are "all together." Answer is 2,170 problems.
In one month, a furniture store sold 239 plastic chairs, 592 wooden chairs and 867 metal chairs. How many chairs did they sell in total?
Addition. Keywords are "in total." Answer is 1,698 chairs.
A coat factory had 25 coats. If they wanted to put them into 5 boxes, with the same number of coats in each box, how many coats would they have left over?
Division. Keywords are "each box." Answer is 5 coats in each box.
If Tom drives his car at a speed of 53 miles per hour and Tim drives his car at a speed of 39 miles per hour, then how much faster does Tom go?
Subtraction. Keywords are "how much faster." Answer is 14 miles per hour faster.
Debbie had to complete 6 pages of homework. Every page had 4 problems on it. How many problems did she have for homework?
Multiplication. Keywords are "every page." Answer is 6 pages x 4 problems = 24 problems
An ice cream shop sold 418 chocolate cones, 304 vanilla cones and 507 strawberry cones. How many cones did the ice cream shop sell all together?
Addition. Keywords are "all together." Answer is 1229 ice cream cones.
For lunch, 937 students selected chocolate milk, 331 selected strawberry milk. How many milks were taken in all?
Addition. Keywords are "in total." Answer is 1,268 milks were taken.
Zoe and her 6 friends went out for dinner for her birthday. If each meal cost $9, how much money did they spend at dinner?
Multiplication. Keywords are "each meal." Answer is $63
While playing a trivia game, Team A scored 451 points, Team B scored 845 points, and Team C scored 212 points. How many more points did Team B score than the combined total of Team A and C?
Addition and Subtraction. Keywords are "How many more and combined total."
451 + 212 = 663
845-663=182
Three friends were counting the number of texts they sent in a month. Alex sent 344, Sam sent 540, and Jessie sent 427. What is the combined amount of texts the three friends sent?
Addition. Keywords are "combined amount." Answer is 1,311 texts.
A movie store had 80 movies they were putting on 8 shelves. If the store owner wanted to make sure each shelf had an equal number of movies. How many movies are on each shelf?
Division. Keywords are "equal number" and "each shelf" 80/8=10. The movie store owner would put 10 movies on each shelf
There are forty eight students going on a field trip. If each school van can hold 8 students, how many vans will they need for the field trip?
Division. Keywords are "each van." Answer is 6 vans.
Ned had $1,800 dollars in his bank account. If he took out $794 to buy a new game system and some new games and another $589 for some new clothes how much money did he have left in his account?
Subtraction. Keywords are "how much money did he have left." Answer is $417.00 left.
An aquarium at the zoo had 1,907 fish in it. If 758 of the fish were placed in a smaller tank and another 705 were placed in a larger tank, how many fish would be left?
Subtraction. Keywords are "how many fish would be left." This is asking how many are remaining. Answer is 444 fish left in the tank.
It takes 5 grams of plastic to make each ruler. If a company had 65 grams of plastic, how many rulers can they make?
Division. No keywords implied. Given a total and how much it takes to make "each" ruler. Answer is 13 rulers.