STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

MATHEMATICS- STAGE 1

The Map of Mathematics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJ-4B-mS-Y)

Student Pack
Developed by TCF College Qayyumabad

www.tcf.org.pk AAP Trust – www.aaptrust.org

Contents
Chapter # 1 (Sets and Number System)………………………………………………2

Chapter # 2 (Fractions)………………………………………………………………………16
Lesson 1 (Working with Fractions)……………………………………………………………………16
Lesson 2 (Converting Fractions)……………………………………………………………………….26
Lesson 3 (Adding and Subtracting Fractions)…………………………………………………...34
Lesson 4 (Multiplying and Dividing Fractions)…………………………………………………..42
Lesson 5 (Fractions Shortcuts and Word Problems)………………………………………….52

Chapter # 3 (Decimals)………………………………………………………………………60
Lesson 6 (Introduction to Decimals)…………………………………………………………………60
Lesson 7 (Adding and Subtracting Decimals)……………………………………………………70
Lesson 8 (Multiplying and Dividing Decimals)………………………………………………….80

Chapter # 4 (Percentages)…………………………………………………………………90
Lesson 9 (Working with Percents)…………………………………………………………………...90
Lesson 10 (Percent Word Problems)………………………………………………………………..98
Lesson 11 (Another Approach to Percents)…………………………………………………….108

Chapter # 5 (Word Problems Techniques)……………………………………….118

Lesson 15 (Dealing with Word Problems)……………………………………………………….118
Lesson 16 (Backdoor Approaches to Word Problems)…………………………………….126

Chapter # 6 (Algebra)………………………………………………………………………135

Answer Key………………………………………………………………………………………143

Pre-Test……………………………………………………………………………………………148

Post-Test………………………………………………………………………………………….159

Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………………..169
 Chapter # 1 Sets and Number System
1.1 SETS
What is set?
The collection of well-defined distinct objects is known as a set. The word well-defined refers to a
specific property which makes it easy to identify whether the given object belongs to the set or not. The
word ‘distinct’ means that the objects of a set must be all different. For example, the collection of
children in class VII whose weight exceeds 35 kg represents a set.

Elements of Set: The different objects that form a set are called the elements of a set. The elements of
the set are written in any order and are not repeated. Elements are denoted by small letters.

Notation of a Set: A set is usually denoted by capital letters and elements are denoted by small letters
If 𝑥 is an element of set 𝐴, then we say 𝑥 𝜖 𝐴 [𝑥 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝐴]. If 𝑥 is not an element of set 𝐴, then we
say 𝑥 ∉ 𝐴. [𝑥 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝐴]

For example, the collection of vowels in the English alphabet.

Solution:
Let us denote the set by 𝑉, then the elements of the set are 𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢 or we can say, 𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢}.
We say 𝑎 ∈ 𝑉, 𝑒 ∈ 𝑉, 𝑖 ∈ 𝑉, 𝑜 ∈ 𝑉 and 𝑢 ∈ 𝑉. Also, we can say 𝑏 ∉ 𝑉, 𝑐 ∉ 𝑉, 𝑑 ∉ 𝑉, etc.

Properties of sets

The two basic properties to represent a set are as follows.

1. The change in order of writing the elements does not make any changes in the set. In other words
the order in which the elements of a set are written is not important. Thus, the set {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐} can also be
written as {𝑎, 𝑐, 𝑏} 𝑜𝑟 {𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑎} 𝑜𝑟 {𝑏, 𝑎, 𝑐} 𝑜𝑟 {𝑐, 𝑎, 𝑏} 𝑜𝑟 {𝑐, 𝑏, 𝑎}.

For Example:
Set 𝐴 = {4, 6, 7, 8, 9} is same as set 𝐴 = {8, 4, 9, 7, 6}
i.e., {4, 6, 7, 8, 9} = {8, 4, 9, 7, 6}

2. If one or many elements of a set are repeated, the set remains the same. In other words the
elements of a set should be distinct. So, if any element of a set is repeated a number of times in the set,
we consider it as a single element.

Thus, {1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4} = {1, 2, 3, 4}

The set of letters in the word ‘𝐺𝑂𝑂𝐺𝐿𝐸’ = {𝐺, 𝑂, 𝐿, 𝐸}

For Example:
The set 𝐴 = {5, 6, 7, 6, 8, 5, 9} is same as set 𝐴 = {5, 6, 7, 8, 9}
i.e., {5, 6, 7, 6, 8, 5, 9} = {5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

1.2 SET NOTATION

Some of the different notations used in sets are:

 ∈ Belongs to

∉ Does not belongs to

: or | Such that

∅ Null set or empty set

n(A) Cardinal number of the set A

∪ Union of two sets

∩ Intersection of two sets

⊂
Is a subset of or contains in

ℕ
Set of natural numbers = {1, 2, 3, …}

𝕎
Set of whole numbers = {0, 1, 2, 3, …}

𝐼 𝑜𝑟 ℤ
Set of integers = {…, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …}

ℤ+
Set of all positive integers

ℚ
Set of all rational numbers

ℚ+
Set of all positive rational numbers

ℝ
Set of all real numbers

ℝ+
Set of all positive real numbers

ℂ Set of all complex numbers

1.3 TYPES OF SETS

Types of Sets Description Examples

Empty Set A set which does not contain any element is The set of whole numbers less
called an empty set, or the null set or the than 0
void set and it is denoted by ∅ and {}. An
empty set is a finite set, since the number of
elements in an empty set is finite, i.e., 0.

Singleton Set A set which contains only one element is A = {x: x is a whole number
called a singleton set. which is not natural number}.
A={0}
It is a singleton set containing
one element, i.e., 0.

A set which contains a definite number of The set of all colors in the
Finite Set: elements is called a finite set. Empty set is rainbow.
also called a finite set.

The set whose elements cannot be listed, Set of all points in a plane
Infinite Set: i.e., set containing never-ending elements is • 𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 ∈ ℕ, 𝑥 > 1}
called an infinite set. • Set of all prime numbers
• 𝐵 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 ∈ 𝕎, 𝑥 = 2𝑛}

Cardinal Number of The number of distinct elements in a given 𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 ∈ ℕ, 𝑥 < 5}

a Set / Cardinality of set A is called the cardinal number of A. It 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4}
Set is denoted by 𝑛 (𝐴). Therefore, 𝑛(𝐴) = 4

Equivalent Sets: Two sets A and B are said to be equivalent 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3} Here 𝑛(𝐴) = 3
if their cardinal number is same, i.e., 𝐵 = {𝑝, 𝑞, 𝑟} Here 𝑛(𝐵) = 3
𝑛 (𝐴) = 𝑛 (𝐵). The symbol for denoting Therefore, 𝐴 ↔ 𝐵
an equivalent set is ‘↔’.

Two sets A and B are said to be equal if they 𝐴 = {𝑝, 𝑞, 𝑟, 𝑠} 𝐵 = {𝑝, 𝑠, 𝑟, 𝑞}

Equal sets: contain the same elements. Every element of
A is an element of B and every element of B Therefore, 𝐴 = 𝐵
is an element of A.

If A and B are two sets, and every element If 𝐵 = {𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠}
Subset of set A is also an element of set B, then A
is called a subset of B and we write it 𝐴 = {2,12,36}
as 𝐴 ⊆ 𝐵 𝑜𝑟 𝐵 ⊇ 𝐴 𝐴 ⊆ 𝐵 𝑜𝑟 𝐵 ⊇ 𝐴

A set which contains all the elements of If 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3}, 𝐵 = {2, 3, 4}

Universal Set other given sets is called a universal set. and 𝐶 = {3, 5, 7} then
The symbol for denoting a universal set
is 𝕌 or 𝝃. 𝕌 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7}
[Here 𝐴 ⊆ 𝕌, 𝐵 ⊆ 𝕌, 𝐶 ⊆ 𝕌
and 𝕌 ⊇ 𝐴, 𝕌 ⊇ 𝐵, 𝕌 ⊇ 𝐶]
1.4 VENN DIAGRAMS
Pictorial representations of sets represented by closed figures are called set diagrams or Venn diagrams.
Venn diagrams are used to illustrate various operations like union, intersection and difference.

In this,
• A rectangle is used to represent a universal set.
• Circles or ovals are used to represent other subsets of the universal set.

Venn diagrams in different situations

 Subset:
If a set A is a subset of set B, then the circle representing set A
is drawn inside the circle representing set B

 Over Lapping:

If set A and set B have some elements in common, then to

represent them, we draw two circles which are overlapping.

 Disjoint:
If set A and set B are disjoint, then they are represented by two
non-intersecting circles

Representing the intersection and union on a Venn diagram

The Venn diagram below shows the two sets 𝕌 = {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}, 𝐴 = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9} and 𝐵 =
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}.
• The numbers 1, 3 and 5 lie in both sets, so we place them in the overlapping region of the two circles.
• The remaining numbers in 𝐴 are 7 and 9. These are placed inside 𝐴, but outside 𝐵.
• The remaining numbers in 𝐵 are 2 and 4. These are placed inside 𝐵, but outside 𝐴.
𝕌

Thus the overlapping region represents the intersection 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 = {1, 3, 5}, and the two circles together
represent the union 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9}. The four remaining numbers 0, 6, 8 and 10 of 𝕌 are
placed outside both circles
1.5 REAL NUMBER SYSTEM
Real Number Set Diagram

Real Numbers:
Real numbers are all the numbers on the continuous number line with no gaps. Real numbers may be
rational or irrational, and algebraic or non-algebraic.

Natural Numbers:
The numbers from 1 and onwards are the natural numbers. It don’t include negative numbers and
fractions. The set of natural numbers is denoted as ℕ; so:

Whole Numbers:
The natural number plus 0 are called whole numbers. The only difference between this set and the one
above is that this set not only contains all the natural numbers, but it also contains 0, whereas 0 is not
an element of the set of natural numbers.
Integers:
The set of whole numbers and their opposites is called integers. The opposites are the additive inverse
of the whole numbers. The natural numbers and the whole numbers are both subsets of integers.

Rational Numbers:
A rational number is any number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers. Rational numbers
can be written in fraction and decimal (Terminating and Repeating) form.

Irrational Numbers:
The irrational numbers are those that cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers. Irrational numbers
have no exact decimal representation as decimals are non-repeating and non-terminating.
Famous Irrational Numbers

Real Number Line

Above is an illustration of a number line. Zero, on the number line, is called the origin. It separates
the negative numbers (located to the left of 0) from the positive numbers (located to the right of
0).

This is how you would graph it if your solution was the number 2:

Comparison of various number sets on a number line

Example 1.5 A: List the elements of the set {x | x is a whole number less than 11}
Solution: There are two parts to this:

1. the number has to belong to the set of whole numbers {0, 1, 2, 3, ...} and
2. It has to be less than 11.
Putting these two ideas together we get:

{0, 1, 2, 3... 9, 10}

Example 1.5 B: List the elements of the set {x | x is a natural number between 5 and 11}.

Solution: There are two parts to this:

1. the number has to belong to the set of natural numbers {1, 2, 3, ...} and
2. It has to be between 5 and 11 - which by the way would not include those two numbers.

Let's see what we get when we put those ideas together:

{6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

You would not have an ellipsis after the 10 because this set would stop at the number 10.

1.6 TYPES OF DECIMAL NUMBERS

Any number can be written in decimal form. Converting a fraction to a decimal is just a division
operation. So the fraction 1/2 means 1÷2.
Every rational number can be expressed as a terminating or recurring decimal. For example

There are three different types of decimal number:

● Exact Decimal (Terminating Decimal Number)
The decimal part of an exact decimal number is composed of a finite number of digits.
For example: 0.025, 3593.2, and 5.22244587

● Repeating Decimal or Recurring Decimal

1. The decimal part, called the period, is repeated endlessly.

For example: 3.2222222 … = 3. 2̅

3.217217 … = 3. ̅̅̅̅̅
217
2. The decimal part is composed of an irregular part and a regular part, also known as a period.
For example: 0.00522222 … = 0.0052̅
4.55127127 … = 4.55127 ̅̅̅̅̅
 ● Not Exact and Non-Recurrent (Non-Terminating and Non-Recurring)
These type of decimals are those which go on forever and don't have digits which repeat.
For example: 3.141592653589793238462643...

Here are some examples:

1.7 ORDERING REAL NUMBERS

We use symbols to help us efficiently communicate relationships between numbers on the number
line. The symbols used to describe an equality relationship between numbers follow:

We next define symbols that denote an order relationship between real numbers.
 Practice Exercise

1 From the adjoining Venn diagram, find the following sets and also shade the diagram.

a) A b) 𝑨 − 𝑩

c) B d) 𝑨 ∪ 𝑩

e) 𝑨′ f) 𝑩 ∪ 𝑪

g) 𝑩′ h) 𝑨 ∩ 𝑪
 i) 𝑪′ j) 𝑩 ∩ 𝑪

k) 𝑪 − 𝑨 l) (𝑩 ∪ 𝑪)′

2 Identify the following as Finite or infinite set

Sets Finite/infinite Reason

a. Set of all points in a plane

b. The set of all birds in California

c. Let Q = {natural numbers less than 25}

d. W = {0, 1, 2, 3, …}

e. The set of all persons in America

f. Z = {… -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …}

Set of all positive integers which is

g. multiple of 3

h. Let P = {5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30}

i. N = {1, 2, 3, …}

j. Let R = {whole numbers between 5 and

45}.

k. Set of all points in a line segment

l. Let S = {x : x ∈ Z and x^2 – 81 = 0}

3) List the elements of the following sets:

a. {x | x is a natural number greater than 100}.
b. {x | x is a whole number less than 15}.
c. {x | x is an even number between 7 and 17}.

4) Twenty-four people go on holidays. If 15 go swimming, 12 go fishing, and 6 do

neither, how many go swimming and fishing? Draw a Venn diagram and fill in the
number of people in all four regions.
5) Which number represents an integer?
a. √3
 10
b. 21
c. √21
d. 10
e. √10
6) Which number does not represents an irrational number?

a. √3
10
b. 21

c. √21
3
d. √16

e. √10

7) Which number represents an irrational number?

a. 40

b. √40
c. 0

d. √9
e. 9

8) Which number represents a rational number?

a. √2
2
b. 3
c. √3
2
d. √
3

e. √15
9) Use the following list of numbers to answer each question below.

a. Identify an integer,
b. Identify rational numbers,
c. Identify three irrational numbers.
10) Cross out the one number which does not belong in the set and state why?
a. Whole Numbers {0, 1, 3, 7, 8.5, 9, 14}
 b. Integers {-8, 0, 5, ¾, 24, -9, -57}

c. Rational Numbers {14, 3/5, -2.4,√81,0.333̅, √40, 100}

d. Irrational Numbers {√3, π, √49, √8, 5π, √91, 5√33}

11) State whether the statement is true or false:

a. √40 has an infinite non-repeating decimal expansion.

b. The number 0.56 is a rational number.

c. -200 and 500 are integers.

d. The numbers -8, -3, 5, and 17 are all whole numbers.
12) Write down an irrational number between 3 and 4.
L E S S O N

1 Working with
Fractions

LESSON SUMMARY
This first fraction lesson will familiarize you with fractions, teaching you
ways to think about them that will let you work with them more easily.
This lesson introduces the three kinds of fractions and teaches you how
to change from one kind of fraction to another, a useful skill for making
fraction arithmetic more efficient. The remaining fraction lessons focus
on arithmetic.

F ractions are one of the most important building blocks of mathematics. You come into contact with
fractions every day: in recipes (12 cup of milk), driving (43 of a mile), measurements (212 acres), money
(half a dollar), and so forth. Most arithmetic problems involve fractions in one way or another. Dec-
imals, percents, ratios, and proportions, which are covered in Lessons 6–12, are also fractions. To understand
them, you have to be very comfortable with fractions, which is what this lesson and the next four are all about.

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 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

 What Is a Fraction?

A fraction is a part of a whole.

■ A minute is a fraction of an hour. It is 1 of the 60 equal parts of an hour, or 610 (one-sixtieth) of an hour.
■ The weekend days are a fraction of a week. The weekend days are 2 of the 7 equal parts of the week, or 27
(two-sevenths) of the week.
■ Money is expressed in fractions. A nickel is 210 (one-twentieth) of a dollar because there are 20 nickels in
one dollar. A dime is 110 (one-tenth) of a dollar because there are 10 dimes in a dollar.
■ Measurements are expressed in fractions. There are four quarts in a gallon. One quart is 41 of a gallon.
Three quarts are 34 of a gallon.

The two numbers that compose a fraction are called the:

numerator

denominator

For example, in the fraction 38, the numerator is 3 and the denominator is 8. An easy way to remember which is
which is to associate the word denominator with the word down. The numerator indicates the number of parts
you are considering, and the denominator indicates the number of equal parts contained in the whole. You can
represent any fraction graphically by shading the number of parts being considered (numerator) out of the whole
(denominator).

Example: Let’s say that a pizza was cut into 8 equal slices and you ate 3 of them. The fraction 38 tells you
what part of the pizza you ate. The pizza below shows this: It’s divided into 8 equal slices, and
3 of the 8 slices (the ones you ate) are shaded. Since the whole pizza was cut into 8 equal slices,
8 is the denominator. The part you ate was 3 slices, making 3 the numerator.

If you have difficulty conceptualizing a particular fraction, think in terms of pizza fractions. Just picture your-
self eating the top number of slices from a pizza that’s cut into the bottom number of slices. This may sound silly,
but most of us relate much better to visual images than to abstract ideas. Incidentally, this little trick comes in handy
for comparing fractions to determine which one is bigger and for adding fractions to approximate an answer.

14
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

Sometimes the whole isn’t a single object like a pizza but a group of objects. However, the shading idea works
the same way. Four out of the five triangles below are shaded. Thus, 45 of the triangles are shaded.

Practice
A fraction represents a part of a whole. Name the fraction that indicates the shaded part. Answers are at the end
of the lesson.

1. 2.

3.

4.

Money Problems

5. 25¢ is what fraction of 75¢? 7. $1.25 is what fraction of $10.00?

6. 25¢ is what fraction of $1?

Distance Problems
Use these equivalents:
1 foot  12 inches
1 yard  3 feet
1 mile  5,280 feet

8. 8 inches is what fraction of a foot? 10. 1,320 feet is what fraction of a mile?

9. 8 inches is what fraction of a yard? 11. 880 yards is what fraction of a mile?

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 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

Time Problems
Use these equivalents:
1 minute  60 seconds
1 hour  60 minutes
1 day  24 hours

12. 20 seconds is what fraction of a minute?

13. 3 minutes is what fraction of an hour?

14. 80 minutes is what fraction of a day?

 Three Kinds of Fractions

There are three kinds of fractions, each explained below.

Proper Fractions
In a proper fraction, the top number is less than the bottom number:

1 2 4 8
2, 3, 9, 1
3

The value of a proper fraction is less than 1.

Example: Suppose you eat 3 slices of a pizza that’s cut into 8 slices. Each slice is 81 of the pizza.
You’ve eaten 38 of the pizza.

16
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

Improper Fractions
In an improper fraction, the top number is greater than or equal to the bottom number:

3 5 14 12
2, 3, 9, 1
2

The value of an improper fraction is 1 or more.

■ When the top and bottom numbers are the same, the value of the fraction is 1. For example, all of these
fractions are equal to 1: 22, 33, 44, 55, etc.
■ Any whole number can be written as an improper fraction by writing that number as the top number of a
fraction whose bottom number is 1, for example, 41  4.

Example: Suppose you’re very hungry and eat all 8 slices of that pizza. You could say you ate 88 of the
pizza, or 1 entire pizza. If you were still hungry and then ate 1 slice of your best friend’s pizza,
which was also cut into 8 slices, you’d have eaten 98 of a pizza. However, you would probably use
a mixed number, rather than an improper fraction, to tell someone how much pizza you ate.
(If you dare!)

Mixed Numbers
When a fraction is written to the right of a whole number, the whole number and fraction together constitute a
mixed number:

312, 423, 1234, 2434

The value of a mixed number is greater than 1: It is the sum of the whole number plus the fraction.

Example: Remember those 9 slices you ate above? You could also say that you ate 181 pizzas because you
ate one entire pizza and one out of eight slices of your best friend’s pizza.

17
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

 Changing Improper Fractions into Mixed or Whole Numbers

Fractions are easier to add and subtract as mixed numbers rather than as improper fractions. To change an improper
fraction into a mixed number or a whole number:

1. Divide the bottom number into the top number.

2. If there is a remainder, change it into a fraction by writing it as the top number over the bottom number of
the improper fraction. Write it next to the whole number.

Example: Change 123 into a mixed number.

1. Divide the bottom number (2) into the top number (13) to get 6
the whole number portion (6) of the mixed number: 
213
12
1
2. Write the remainder of the division (1) over the original
1
bottom number (2): 2

3. Write the two numbers together: 612

4. Check: Change the mixed number back into an improper
fraction (see steps starting on page 19). If you get the improper fraction,
your answer is correct.

18
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

Example: Change 142 into a mixed number.

1. Divide the bottom number (4) into the top number (12) to get 3
the whole number portion (3) of the mixed number: 
412
12
0
2. Since the remainder of the division is zero, you’re done. The
improper fraction 142 is actually a whole number: 3
3. Check: Multiply 3 by the original bottom number (4) to make
sure you get the original top number (12) as the answer.

Here is your first sample question in this book. Sample questions are a chance for you to practice the steps demon-
strated in previous examples. Write down all the steps you take in solving the question, and then compare your
approach to the one demonstrated at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
Change 13
4
into a mixed number.

Practice
Change these improper fractions into mixed numbers or whole numbers.

15. 130 18. 66

16. 165 200

19.  
25

17. 172 20. 7750

 Changing Mixed Numbers into Improper Fractions

Fractions are easier to multiply and divide as improper fractions rather than as mixed numbers. To change a mixed
number into an improper fraction:

1. Multiply the whole number by the bottom number.

2. Add the top number to the product from step 1.
3. Write the total as the top number of a fraction over the original bottom number.

19
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

Example: Change 234 into an improper fraction.

1. Multiply the whole number (2) by the bottom number (4): 248
2. Add the result (8) to the top number (3): 8  3  11
11
3. Put the total (11) over the bottom number (4): 4
4. Check: Reverse the process by changing the improper fraction
into a mixed number. Since you get back 234, your answer is right.

Example: Change 358 into an improper fraction.

1. Multiply the whole number (3) by the bottom number (8): 3  8  24

2. Add the result (24) to the top number (5): 24  5  29
29
3. Put the total (29) over the bottom number (8): 8
4. Check: Change the improper fraction into a mixed number.
Since you get back 358, your answer is right.

Sample Question 2
2
Change 35 into an improper fraction.

Practice
Change these mixed numbers into improper fractions.

21. 112 23. 734 25. 1523

22. 238 24. 10110 26. 1225

Skill Building until Next Time

Reach into your pocket or coin purse and pull out all your change. You need more than a dollar’s worth
of change for this exercise, so if you don’t have enough, borrow some loose change and add that to the
mix. Add up the change you collected and write the total amount as an improper fraction. Then convert
it to a mixed number.

20
 – WORKING WITH FRACTIONS –

 Answers

Practice Problems

4 1 8 2
1. 16 or 4 8. 12 or 3 15. 313 22. 19
8

9 3 8 2
2. 15 or 5 9. 36 or 9 16. 221 23. 31
4

3 1,320 1
3. 5 10. 
5,2
80 or 4 17. 157 24. 101
10

7 880 1 47
7 or 1 
1,7
60 or 2
4. 11. 18. 1 25. 3

1 20 1 62
5. 3 12. 6
0 or 3 19. 8 26. 
5

1 3 1
6. 4 13. 60 or 20 20. 1114

1 1 3
7. 8 14. 1 21. 2
8

Sample Question 1
1. Divide the bottom number (3) into the top number (14) to get the 4
whole number portion (4) of the mixed number: 4
31
12
2
2
2. Write the remainder of the division (2) over the original bottom number (3): 
3
3. Write the two numbers together: 423
4. Check: Change the mixed number back into an improper fraction to make
sure you get the original 134.

Sample Question 2
1. Multiply the whole number (3) by the bottom number (5): 3  5 =15
2. Add the result (15) to the top number (2): 15 + 2 = 17
17
3. Put the total (17) over the bottom number (5): 
5
4. Check: Change the improper fraction back to a mixed number. 3
7
51
15
Dividing 17 by 5 gives an answer of 3 with a remainder of 2: 2
2
Put the remainder (2) over the original bottom number (5): 
5
Write the two numbers together to get back the original mixed number: 3 25


21
L E S S O N

2 Converting
Fractions

LESSON SUMMARY
This lesson begins with another definition of a fraction. Then you’ll see
how to reduce fractions and how to raise them to higher terms—skills
you’ll need to do arithmetic with fractions. Before actually beginning
fraction arithmetic (which is in the next lesson), you’ll learn some clever
shortcuts for comparing fractions.

L esson 1 defined a fraction as a part of a whole. Here’s a new definition, which you’ll find useful as you
move into solving arithmetic problems involving fractions.

A fraction means “divide.”

The top number of the fraction is divided
by the bottom number.

Thus, 43 means “3 divided by 4,” which may also be written as 3 ÷ 4 or 43. The value of 43 is the same as the quotient
(result) you get when you do the division. Thus, 34  0.75, which is the decimal value of the fraction. Notice that
3 3
4 of a dollar is the same thing as 75¢, which can also be written as $0.75, the decimal value of 4.

23
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

Example: Find the decimal value of 19.

Divide 9 into 1 (note that you have to add a decimal point and a series of zeros to the end of the 1 in order
to divide 9 into 1):
.1111 etc.
00
91. 00tc
e.
9
10
9
10
9
10
The fraction 91 is equivalent to the repeating decimal 0.1111 etc., which can be written as 0.1
. (The little “hat”
over the 1 indicates that it repeats indefinitely.)

The rules of arithmetic do not allow you to divide by zero. Thus, zero can never be the bottom number of a fraction.

Practice
What are the decimal values of these fractions?

1. 12 8. 58

2. 14 9. 78

3. 34 10. 15

4. 13 11. 25

5. 23 12. 35

6. 18 13. 45

7. 38 14. 110

The decimal values you just computed are worth memorizing. They are the most common fraction-to-
decimal equivalents you will encounter on math tests and in real life.

24
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

 Reducing a Fraction
50
Reducing a fraction means writing it in lowest terms, that is, with smaller numbers. For instance, 50¢ is  10
0 of a
dollar, or 21 of a dollar. In fact, if you have 50¢ in your pocket, you say that you have half a dollar. We say that the
50 1
fraction 10 0 reduces to 2. Reducing a fraction does not change its value. When you do arithmetic with fractions,
always reduce your answer to lowest terms. To reduce a fraction:

1. Find a whole number that divides evenly into the top number and the bottom number.
2. Divide that number into both the top and bottom numbers and replace them with the quotients (the divi-
sion answers).
3. Repeat the process until you can’t find a number that divides evenly into the top and bottom numbers.

It’s faster to reduce when you find the largest number that divides evenly into both numbers of the fraction.

Example: Reduce 284 to lowest terms.

Two steps: One step:

84 2 88 1
  4 = 6  
1. Divide by 4: 24  1. Divide by 8: 24  8 = 3
22 1
2. Divide by 2:  = 
62 3

Now you try it. Solutions to sample questions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
Reduce 69 to lowest terms.

Reducing Shortcut
When the top and bottom numbers both end in zeros, cross out the same number of zeros in both numbers to
begin the reducing process. (Crossing out zeros is the same as dividing by 10, 100, 1000, etc., depending on the num-
300 3
ber of zeros you cross out.) For example, 4000 reduces to 40 when you cross out two zeros in both numbers:

300 3
00  4

40 0

25
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

Practice
Reduce these fractions to lowest terms.

15. 24 20. 1345

16. 255 21. 25

100

17. 162 22. 20

700

18. 3468 2,500

23.  
5,000

19. 2979 24. 1,500

75,000

 Raising a Fraction to Higher Terms

Before you can add and subtract fractions, you have to know how to raise a fraction to higher terms. This is actu-
ally the opposite of reducing a fraction. To raise a fraction to higher terms:

1. Divide the original bottom number into the new bottom number.
2. Multiply the quotient (the step 1 answer) by the original top number.
3. Write the product (the step 2 answer) over the new bottom number.

Example: Raise 23 to 12ths.

1. Divide the old bottom number (3) into the new one (12): 4
312
2. Multiply the quotient (4) by the old top number (2): 428
8
3. Write the product (8) over the new bottom number (12): 
12
8÷4 2
4. Check: Reduce the new fraction to make sure you get back   3
12 ÷ 4
the original fraction.

A reverse Z pattern can help you remember how to raise a fraction to higher terms. Start with number 1 at
the lower left and then follow the arrows and numbers to the answer.

2
 1?2
❷ Multiply the result of ❶ by 2 ❸ Write the answer here
❶ Divide 3 into 12 
3

26
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

Sample Question 2
Raise 38 to 16ths.

Practice
Raise these fractions to higher terms as indicated.

25. 56 = 1x2 30. 29 = 2x7

26. 13 = 1x8 31. 25 = x

500

27. 133 = 5x2 32. 130 = x

200

28. 58 = 4x8 33. 56 = x

300

29. 145 = 3x0 34. 29 = x

810

 Comparing Fractions

Which fraction is larger, 38 or 35? Don’t be fooled into thinking that 38 is larger just because it has the larger bot-
tom number. There are several ways to compare two fractions, and they can be best explained by example.

■ Use your intuition: “pizza” fractions. Visualize the fractions in terms of two pizzas, one cut into 8 slices
and the other cut into 5 slices. The pizza that’s cut into 5 slices has larger slices. If you eat 3 of them, you’re
eating more pizza than if you eat 3 slices from the other pizza. Thus, 35 is larger than 38.

27
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

■ Compare the fractions to known fractions like 21. Both 38 and 35 are close to 21. However, 35 is more than 21,
while 38 is less than 21. Therefore, 35 is larger than 38. Comparing fractions to 21 is actually quite simple. The
212
fraction 38 is a little less than 48, which is the same as 21; in a similar fashion, 35 is a little more than 5 , which
21
is the same as 21. ( 2
5 may sound like a strange fraction, but you can easily see that it’s the same
as 21 by considering a pizza cut into 5 slices. If you were to eat half the pizza, you’d eat 221 slices.)

■ Change both fractions to decimals. Remember the fraction definition at the beginning of this lesson? A
fraction means divide: Divide the top number by the bottom number. Changing to decimals is simply the
application of this definition.

3 3
5  3 ÷ 5  0.6 8  3 ÷ 8  0.375

Because 0.6 is greater than 0.375, the corresponding fractions have the same relationship: 35 is greater than 38.

■ Raise both fractions to higher terms. If both fractions have the same denominator, then you can compare
their top numbers.

3 24 3 15
5  40 8  40

Because 24 is greater than 15, the corresponding fractions have the same relationship: 35 is greater than 38.

■ Shortcut: cross multiply. “Cross multiply” the top number of one fraction with the bottom number of the
other fraction, and write the result over the top number. Repeat the process using the other set of top and
bottom numbers.
24 15
3 3
 vs 8
5

Since 24 is greater than 15, the fraction under it, 3 , is greater than 3.
5 8

Practice 39. 15 or 16

Which fraction is the largest in its group?
40. 79 or 45
2 3
35.  or 
5 5
41. 13 or 25 or 12
36. 23 or 45
42. 58 or 197 or 1385
6 7
37.  or 
7 6
43. 110 or 10
101 or 
100
1,0
00
38. 130 or 131
44. 37 or 3737 or 291

28
 – CONVERTING FRACTIONS –

Skill Building until Next Time

It’s time to take a look at your pocket change again! Only this time, you need less than a dollar. So if you
found extra change in your pocket, now is the time to be generous and give it away. After you gather a
pile of change that adds up to less than a dollar, write the amount of change you have in the form of a frac-
tion. Then reduce the fraction to its lowest terms.
You can do the same thing with time intervals that are less than an hour. How long till you have to
leave for work, go to lunch, or begin your next activity for the day? Express the time as a fraction, and then
reduce to lowest terms.

 Answers

Practice Problems
3 7
1. 0.5 10. 0.2 19. 1 28. 30 37. 
1 6
2 3
2. 0.25 11. 0.4 20.  29. 8 38. 1
5 0
1 1
3. 0.75 12. 0.6 21.  30. 6 39. 
4 5
1 1 4
4.  or 0.333
0.3 13. 0.8 22. 35 31. 200 40. 
5
2 1 1
5.  or 0.663
0.6 14. 0.1 23. 
2 32. 60 41. 
2
1 1 5
6. 0.125 15.  24. 5 33. 250 42. 
2 0 8
1 1
7. 0.375 16.  25. 10 34. 180 43. 1
5 0
1 3
8. 0.625 17.  26. 6 35.  44. All equal
2 5
3 4
9. 0.875 18.  27. 12 36. 
4 5

Sample Question 1
63
Divide by 3: 
93 = 23

Sample Question 2
1. Divide the old bottom number (8) into the new one (16): 6
812

2. Multiply the quotient (2) by the old top number (3): 236
6
3. Write the product (6) over the new bottom number (16): 
16
6÷2 3
4. Check: Reduce the new fraction to make sure you get back   
16 ÷ 2 8
the original.

29
L E S S O N

Adding and

3 Subtracting
Fractions
LESSON SUMMARY
In this lesson, you will learn how to add and subtract fractions and
mixed numbers.

A dding and subtracting fractions can be tricky. You can’t just add or subtract the numerators and
denominators. Instead, you have to make sure that the fractions you’re adding or subtracting have
the same denominator before you do the addition or subtraction.

 Adding Fractions

If you have to add two fractions that have the same bottom numbers, just add the top numbers together and write
the total over the bottom number.

2 4 2+4 6 2
Example: 9  9    9, which can be reduced to 3
9

Note: There are a lot of sample questions in this lesson. Make sure you do the sample questions and
check your solutions against the step-by-step solutions at the end of this lesson before you go on to the
next section.

31
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

Sample Question 1
5

8 + 87

Finding the Least Common Denominator

To add fractions with different bottom numbers, raise some or all the fractions to higher terms so they all have
the same bottom number, called the common denominator. Then add the numerators, keeping the denomina-
tors the same.
All the original bottom numbers divide evenly into the common denominator. If it is the smallest number
that they all divide evenly into, it is called the least common denominator (LCD). Addition is often faster using
the LCD than it is with just any old common denominator.

Here are some tips for finding the LCD:

■ See if all the bottom numbers divide evenly into the largest bottom number.
■ Check out the multiplication table of the largest bottom number until you find a number that all the other
bottom numbers divide into evenly.
■ When all else fails, multiply all the bottom numbers together.
2 4
Example: 3  5

1. Find the LCD by multiplying the bottom numbers: 3  5  15

2 10
2. Raise each fraction to 15ths, the LCD: 3  15
4 12
5  15

22
3. Add as usual: 
15

Sample Question 2
5

8 + 34

Adding Mixed Numbers

Mixed numbers, you remember, consist of a whole number and a fraction together. To add mixed numbers:

1. Add the fractional parts of the mixed numbers. (If they have different bottom numbers, first raise them to
higher terms so they all have the same bottom number.)
2. If the sum is an improper fraction, change it to a mixed number.
3. Add the whole number parts of the original mixed numbers.
4. Add the results of steps 2 and 3.

32
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

Example: 235  145

3 4 7
1. Add the fractional parts of the mixed numbers: 5  5  5
7 2
2. Change the improper fraction into a mixed number: 5  15
3. Add the whole number parts of the original mixed numbers: 213
4. Add the results of steps 2 and 3: 125  3  425

Sample Question 3
423 + 123

Practice
Add and reduce.

1. 25 + 15 6. 213 + 312

2. 34 + 14 7. 52 + 215

3. 318 + 238 8. 130 + 58

4. 130 + 25 9. 115 + 223 + 145

5. 312 + 534 10. 234 + 316 + 4112

 Subtracting Fractions

As with addition, if the fractions you’re subtracting have the same bottom numbers, just subtract the second top
number from the first top number and write the difference over the bottom number.

4 3 4–3 1
Example: 9  9  9  9

Sample Question 4
5
8 – 38

To subtract fractions with different bottom numbers, raise some or all of the fractions to higher terms so
they all have the same bottom number, or common denominator, and then subtract. As with addition, subtrac-
tion is often faster if you use the LCD rather than a larger common denominator.

33
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

5 3
Example: 6 – 4

1. Find the LCD. The smallest number that both bottom numbers divide
into evenly is 12. The easiest way to find it is to check the multiplication
table for 6, the larger of the two bottom numbers.
5 10
2. Raise each fraction to 12ths, the LCD: 6  12
3 9
3. Subtract as usual: – 4  12
1

12

Sample Question 5
3
4 – 25

Subtracting Mixed Numbers

To subtract mixed numbers:

1. If the second fraction is smaller than the first fraction, subtract it from the first fraction. Otherwise, you’ll
have to “borrow” (explained by example further on) before subtracting fractions.
2. Subtract the second whole number from the first whole number.
3. Add the results of steps 1 and 2.

Example: 435 – 125

3 2 1
1. Subtract the fractions: 5 – 5  5
2. Subtract the whole numbers: 4–13
1 1
3. Add the results of steps 1 and 2: 5  3  35

When the second fraction is bigger than the first fraction, you’ll have to perform an extra “borrowing” step
before subtracting the fractions.

34
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

Example: 735 – 245

1. You can’t subtract the fractions the way they are because 45 is bigger than 35.
So you have to “borrow”:
■ Rewrite the 7 part of 735 as 655: 7  655
(Note: Fifths are used because 5 is the bottom number in 735;
also, 655  6  55  7.)
■ Then add back the 35 part of 735: 735  655  35  685
2. Now you have a different version of the original problem: 685 – 245
8 4 4
3. Subtract the fractional parts of the two mixed numbers:  –   
5 5 5

4. Subtract the whole number parts of the two mixed numbers: 6–24
5. Add the results of the last 2 steps together: 4  45  445

Sample Question 6
513 – 134

Practice
Subtract and reduce.
11. 56 – 16 16. 78 – 14 – 12

12. 78 – 38 17. 245 – 1

13. 175 – 145 18. 3 – 79

14. 23 – 35 19. 223 – 14

15. 43 – 1145 20. 238 – 156

Skill Building until Next Time

The next time you and a friend decide to pool your money together to purchase something, figure out what
fraction of the whole each of you will donate. Will the cost be split evenly: 12 for your friend to pay and 12 for
you to pay? Or is your friend richer than you and offering to pay 23 of the amount? Does the sum of the frac-
tions add up to 1? Can you afford to buy the item if your fractions don’t add up to 1?

35
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

 Answers

Practice Problems
3
1. 
5 6. 556 11. 2

3 16. 1

8
2. 1 7. 4170 12. 1

2 17. 154
3. 512 8. 37

40 13. 1

5 18. 292
7
4. 1
0 9. 4125 14. 1

15 19. 2152
5. 914 10. 10 15. 2

5 20. 13

24

Sample Question 1
5 7 5+7 12
 +  =  = 
8 8 8 8

The result of 182 can be reduced to 32, leaving it as an improper fraction, or it can then be changed to a

mixed number, 112. Both answers (32 and 112) are correct.

Sample Question 2
1. Find the LCD: The smallest number that both bottom numbers divide into evenly is 8, the larger of
the two bottom numbers.

2. Raise 34 to 8ths, the LCD: 3


4  68
5
3. Add as usual: 
6  68  18
1

11 11
4. Optional: Change 8 to a mixed number. 
8  138

Sample Question 3
2
1. Add the fractional parts of the mixed numbers: 
3  23  43
4
2. Change the improper fraction into a mixed number: 
3  113

3. Add the whole number parts of the original mixed numbers: 415

4. Add the results of steps 2 and 3: 113  5  613

Sample Question 4
5 3 5–3 2

8  
8  
8  ,
8 which reduces to 14

36
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING FRACTIONS –

Sample Question 5
1. Find the LCD: Multiply the bottom numbers: 4  5  20
3
2. Raise each fraction to 20ths, the LCD: 
4  1250

3. Subtract as usual:  25  280

7

20

Sample Question 6
1. You can’t subtract the fractions the way they are because 34 is bigger than 13.
So you have to “borrow”:

■ Rewrite the 5 part of 513 as 433: 5  433

(Note: Thirds are used because 3 is the bottom
number in 513; also, 433  4  33  5.)

■ Then add back the 13 part of 513: 513  433  13  443

2. Now you have a different version of the original problem: 443  134

3. Subtract the fractional parts of the two mixed numbers after

4
raising them both to 12ths: 
3  1162
9
 34  1
2
7

12

4. Subtract the whole number parts of the two mixed numbers: 413

5. Add the results of the last two steps together: 3  172  3172

37
L E S S O N

Multiplying

4 and Dividing
Fractions
LESSON SUMMARY
This fraction lesson focuses on multiplication and division with fractions
and mixed numbers.

F ortunately, multiplying and dividing fractions is actually easier than adding and subtracting them.
When you multiply, you can simply multiply both the top numbers and the bottom numbers. To
divide fractions, you invert and multiply. Of course, there are extra steps when you get to multiply-
ing and dividing mixed numbers. Read on.

39
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

 Multiplying Fractions

Multiplication by a proper fraction is the same as finding a part of something. For instance, suppose a personal-
size pizza is cut into 4 slices. Each slice represents 14 of the pizza. If you eat 12 of a slice, then you’ve eaten 12 of 14 of
a pizza, or 21  14 of the pizza (of means multiply), which is the same as 81 of the whole pizza.

Multiplying Fractions by Fractions

To multiply fractions:

1. Multiply their top numbers together to get the top number of the answer.
2. Multiply their bottom numbers together to get the bottom number of the answer.

1 1
Example: 2  4

1. Multiply the top numbers:

11 1
2. Multiply the bottom numbers:  = 
24 8

1 3 7
Example:   5  4
3

1. Multiply the top numbers:

137 21
2. Multiply the bottom numbers:  = 
354 60
21 ÷ 3 7
3. Reduce:  
60 ÷ 3  20

Now you try. Answers to sample questions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
  
2 3
5 4

40
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Practice
Multiply and reduce.

1. 15  13 5. 131  1112 9. 59  135

2. 29  54 6. 45  45 10. 89  132

3. 79  35 7. 221  72

4. 35  170 8. 94  125

Cancellation Shortcut
Sometimes you can cancel before multiplying. Cancelling is a shortcut that speeds up multiplication because you’re
working with smaller numbers. Cancelling is similar to reducing: If there is a number that divides evenly into a
top number and a bottom number, do that division before multiplying. By the way, if you forget to cancel, don’t
worry. You’ll still get the right answer, but you’ll have to reduce it.

5 9
Example: 6  20
3
5 9
1. Cancel the 6 and the 9 by dividing 3 into both of them:   2
6 0
2
6 ÷ 3 = 2 and 9 ÷ 3 = 3. Cross out the 6 and the 9.
1 3
5 9
2. Cancel the 5 and the 20 by dividing 5 into both of them:   
2
6 0
2 4
5 ÷ 5 = 1 and 20 ÷ 5 = 4. Cross out the 5 and the 20.
13 3
3. Multiply across the new top numbers and the new bottom numbers:  = 
24 8

Sample Question 2
  
4 15
9 22

Practice
This time, cancel before you multiply. If you do all the cancellations, you won’t have to reduce your answer.

11. 14  23 16. 1326  2370

12. 23  58 17. 37  154  265

13. 89  53 18. 23  47  35

14. 2110  2603 19. 183  5224  34

300 200 100

15.  00  
5,0 00  3
7,0 20. 12  23  34  45

41
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Multiplying Fractions by Whole Numbers

To multiply a fraction by a whole number:

1. Rewrite the whole number as a fraction with a bottom number of 1.

2. Multiply as usual.

Example: 5  23

1. Rewrite 5 as a fraction: 5  51

5 2 10
2. Multiply the fractions: 1  3  3

3. Optional: Change the product 130 to a mixed number. 10

3  33
1

Sample Question 3
8  24
5

Practice
Cancel where possible, multiply, and reduce. Convert products to mixed numbers where applicable.

21. 12  34 26. 16  274

22. 8  130 27. 1430  20

23. 3  56 28. 5  190  2

24. 274  12 29. 60  13  45

25. 35  10 30. 13  24  156

Have you noticed that multiplying any number by a proper fraction produces an answer that’s smaller than
that number? It’s the opposite of the result you get from multiplying whole numbers. That’s because multiplying
by a proper fraction is the same as finding a part of something.

42
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Multiplying with Mixed Numbers

To multiply with mixed numbers, change each mixed number to an improper fraction and multiply.

Example: 423  512

43+2
1. Change 423 to an improper fraction: 423   14
  3
3
52+1
2. Change 5 12 to an improper fraction: 512   
2
11
2
7

14 11
3. Multiply the fractions:   
3 2
1
Notice that you can cancel the 14 and the 2 by dividing them by 2.
77 2
4. Optional: Change the improper fraction to a mixed number. 3  253

Sample Question 4
2  14
1 3

Practice
Multiply and reduce. Change improper fractions to mixed or whole numbers.

31. 223  25 36. 5153  158

32. 121  138 37. 113  23

33. 3  213 38. 813  445

34. 115  10 39. 215  423  112

35. 154  4190 40. 112  223  335

 Dividing Fractions

Dividing means finding out how many times one amount can be found in a second amount, whether you’re work-
ing with fractions or not. For instance, to find out how many 41-pound pieces a 2-pound chunk of cheese can be
cut into, you have to divide 2 by 1 . As you can see from the picture below, a 2-pound chunk of cheese can
4
be cut into eight 14-pound pieces. (2 ÷ 1  8)
4

43
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Dividing Fractions by Fractions

To divide one fraction by a second fraction, invert the second fraction (that is, flip the top and bottom numbers)
and then multiply.

1 3
Example: 2 ÷ 5

1. Invert the second fraction (35): 5

3
1 5 5
2. Change ÷ to × and multiply the first fraction by the new second fraction:     
2 3 6

Sample Question 5
2 3
 ÷ 
1
5 0

Another Format for Division 1


Sometimes fraction division is written in a different format. For example, 21 ÷ 35 can also be written as 23 . Regard-
5
less of the format used, the solution is the same.

Reciprocal Fractions
Inverting a fraction, as we do for division, is the same as finding the fraction’s reciprocal. For example, 35 and 53 are
reciprocals. The product of a fraction and its reciprocal is 1. Thus, 35  53  1.

Practice
Divide and reduce, canceling where possible. Convert improper fractions to mixed or whole numbers.

41. 47 ÷ 35 46. 154 ÷ 154

42. 27 ÷ 25 47. 295 ÷ 35

43. 12 ÷ 34 48. 4459 ÷ 2375

44. 152 ÷ 130 49. 3452 ÷ 1201

45. 12 ÷ 13 7,500

50.   
250
7,000 ÷ 140

Have you noticed that dividing a number by a proper fraction gives an answer that’s larger than that num-
ber? It’s the opposite of the result you get when dividing by a whole number.

44
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Dividing Fractions by Whole Numbers or Vice Versa

To divide a fraction by a whole number or vice versa, change the whole number to a fraction by putting it over 1,
and then divide as usual.

3
Example: 5 ÷ 2

1. Change the whole number (2) into a fraction: 2  21

2. Invert the second fraction (21): 1
2
3 1 3
3. Change ÷ to × and multiply the two fractions: 5  2  10

Example: 2 ÷ 35

1. Change the whole number (2) into a fraction: 2  21

2. Invert the second fraction (35): 5
3
2 5 10
3. Change ÷ to × and multiply the two fractions: 1  3  3
10 1
4. Optional: Change the improper fraction to a mixed number. 3  33

Did you notice that the order of division makes a difference? 53 ÷ 2 is not the same as 2 ÷ 53. But then, the same
is true of division with whole numbers; 4 ÷ 2 is not the same as 2 ÷ 4.

Practice
Divide, canceling where possible, and reduce. Change improper fractions into mixed or whole numbers.

51. 2 ÷ 34 56. 14 ÷ 134

52. 27 ÷ 2 57. 2356 ÷ 5

53. 1 ÷ 34 58. 56 ÷ 2111

54. 34 ÷ 6 59. 35 ÷ 178

55. 85 ÷ 4 1,800

60.  
12 ÷ 900

45
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Dividing with Mixed Numbers

To divide with mixed numbers, change each mixed number to an improper fraction and then divide as usual.

Example: 234 ÷ 61

24+3
1. Change 234 to an improper fraction: 234   11
  4
4
11 1
2. Rewrite the division problem:  ÷ 
4 6
3
6 11  3
3. Invert 61 and multiply: 11
  1 =  = 
4 21
33
2
2
33 1
4. Optional: Change the improper fraction to a mixed number. 2  162

Sample Question 6
112 ÷ 2

Practice
Divide, cancelling where possible, and reduce. Convert improper fractions to mixed or whole numbers.

61. 212 ÷ 34 66. 10 ÷ 423

62. 627 ÷ 11 67. 134 ÷ 834

63. 1 ÷ 134 68. 325 ÷ 645

64. 223 ÷ 56 69. 245 ÷ 2110

65. 312 ÷ 3 70. 234 ÷ 112

Skill Building until Next Time

Buy a small bag of candy (or cookies or any other treat you like) as a reward for completing this lesson.
Before you eat any of the bag’s contents, empty the bag and count how many pieces of candy are in it.
Write down this number. Then walk around and collect three friends or family members who want to share
your candy. Now divide the candy equally among you and them. If the total number of candies you have
is not divisible by 4, you might have to cut some in half or quarters; this means you’ll have to divide using
fractions, which is great practice. Write down the equation that shows the fraction of candy that each of
you received of the total amount.

46
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

 Answers

Practice Problems

1. 115 19. 1 37. 89 55. 25

2. 158 20. 15 38. 40 56. 6513
3. 175 21. 8 39. 1612 57. 356
4. 67 22. 225 40. 1425 58. 2913
5. 14 23. 212 41. 2201 59. 90
6. 1265 24. 312 42. 57 60. 16
7. 13 25. 6 43. 23 61. 313
8. 130 26. 423 44. 18 62. 47
9. 19 27. 612 45. 112 63. 47
10. 29 28. 9 46. 1 64. 315
11. 16 29. 16 47. 35 65. 116
12. 152 30. 212 48. 1241 66. 217
13. 4207 or 11237 31. 1115 49. 134 67. 15
14. 23 32. 14 50. 35 68. 12
15. 325 33. 7 51. 223 69. 49
16. 130 34. 12 52. 17 70. 156
17. 5 35. 134 53. 113
18. 385 36. 219 54. 18

47
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING FRACTIONS –

Sample Question 1
1. Multiply the top numbers: 236
2. Multiply the bottom numbers: 5  4  20
6 3
3. Reduce: 
20 
10

Sample Question 2 2

4
1. Cancel the 4 and the 22 by dividing 2 into both of them: 
9  15

22
4 ÷ 2  2 and 22 ÷ 2  11. Cross out the 4 and the 22.
11
2 5

2. Cancel the 9 and the 15 by dividing 3 into both of them: 4


9  
15


22
9 ÷ 3  3 and 15 ÷ 3  5. Cross out the 9 and the 15.
3 11

25
3. Multiply across the new top numbers and the new 
3  11 = 1303
bottom numbers:

Sample Question 3
1. Rewrite 24 as a fraction: 24 = 214
3
2. Multiply the fractions: 5

8  
24

15

1 = 1 = 15
1
Cancel the 8 and the 24 by dividing both of them by 8;
then multiply across the new numbers.

Sample Question 4
3 14+3
1. Change 14 to an improper fraction: 134 =  4
7
 = 
4
1
2. Multiply the fractions: 
2  74 = 78

Sample Question 5
1. Invert the second fraction (13
0 ):
10

3
2
2. Change ÷ to × and multiply the first fraction by the new 2

5  
10

4

3 = 3
1
second fraction:
4
3. Optional: Change the improper fraction to a mixed number. 
3 = 113

Sample Question 6
12+1
1. Change 112 to an improper fraction: 112 =  2
3
 = 
2

2. Change the whole number (2) into a fraction: 2 = 21

3
3. Rewrite the division problem: 
2 ÷ 21
4. Invert 21 and multiply: 3

2  12 = 34

48
L E S S O N

Fraction

5 Shortcuts and
Word Problems
LESSON SUMMARY
The final fraction lesson is devoted to arithmetic shortcuts with fractions
(addition, subtraction, and division) and to word problems.

T he first part of this lesson shows you some shortcuts for doing arithmetic with fractions. The rest of
the lesson reviews all of the fraction lessons by presenting you with word problems. Fraction word
problems are especially important because they come up so frequently in everyday living, as you’ll
see from the familiar situations presented in the word problems.

 Shortcut for Addition and Subtraction

Instead of wasting time looking for the least common denominator (LCD) when adding or subtracting, try this
“cross multiplication” trick to quickly add or subtract two fractions:

5 3
Example: 6  8  ?

1. Top number: “Cross multiply” 5  8 and 6  3; then add:

2. Bottom number: Multiply 6  8, the two bottom numbers:
5
6

+ 3 40 + 18
 = 
8 48

3. Reduce:  5488  2294

49
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

When using the shortcut for subtraction, you must be careful about the order of subtraction: Begin the
“cross multiply” step with the top number of the first fraction. (The “hook” to help you remember where to begin
is to think about how you read. You begin at the top left—where you’ll find number that starts the process, the
top number of the first fraction.)

5 3
Example: 6  4 = ?

5 20  18
6  34   2
1. Top number: Cross multiply 5  4 and subtract 3  6: 4

2. Bottom number: Multiply 6  4, the two bottom numbers: = 224 = 112

3. Reduce:

Now you try. Check your answer against the step-by-step solution at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
2

3 – 35

Practice
Use the shortcut to add and subtract; then reduce if possible. Convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

1. 12  35 6. 23 – 172

2. 27  34 7. 23 – 15

3. 130 + 125 8. 56 – 14

4. 14  38 9. 34 – 130

5. 56  49 10. 34 – 35

50
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

 Shortcut for Division: Extremes over Means

Extremes over means is a fast way to divide fractions. This concept is also best explained by example, say 75 ÷ 32. But
5
7
first, let’s rewrite the example as 
2 and provide two definitions:
3
5
Extremes:  Means:
7

2
The numbers that are extremely far apart 
3 The numbers that are close together

Here’s how to do it:

1. Multiply the extremes to get the top number of the answer: 53 15
 = 
72 14
2. Multiply the means to get the bottom number of the answer:

You can even use extremes over means when one of the numbers is a whole number or a mixed number. First change
the whole number or mixed number into a fraction and then use the shortcut.
2

Example: 3
4
2
1
1. Change the 2 into a fraction and rewrite the division: 
3
4
24 8
2. Multiply the extremes to get the top number of the answer:  = 
13 3

3. Multiply the means to get the bottom number of the answer:

8 2
4. Optional: Change the improper fraction to a mixed number: 3  23

Sample Question 3
312

134

Practice
Use extremes over means to divide; reduce if possible. Convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

1
2 9
11.  16. 
3
3 5
4

12. 27 ÷ 47 17. 123 ÷ 56

13. 13 ÷ 34 18. 229 ÷ 119

14. 6 ÷ 12 19. 812 ÷ 325

15. 312 ÷ 2 20. 214 ÷ 2

51
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

 Word Problems

Each question group relates to one of the prior fraction lessons. (If you are unfamiliar with how to go about solv-
ing word problems, refer to Lessons 15 and 16.)

Find the Fraction (Lesson 1)

21. John worked 14 days out of a 31-day month. What fraction of the month did he work?

22. A certain recipe calls for 3 ounces of cheese. What fraction of a 15-ounce piece of cheese is
needed?

23. Alice lives 7 miles from her office. After driving 4 miles to her office, Alice’s car ran out of gas.
What fraction of the trip had she already driven? What fraction of the trip remained?

24. Mark had $10 in his wallet. He spent $6 for his lunch and left a $1 tip. What fraction of his money
did he spend on his lunch, including the tip?

25. If Heather makes $2,000 a month and pays $750 for rent, what fraction of her income is spent
on rent?

26. During a 30-day month, there were 8 weekend days and 1 paid holiday during which Marlene’s
office was closed. Marlene took off 3 days when she was sick and 2 days for personal business. If
she worked the rest of the days, what fraction of the month did Marlene work?

Fraction Addition and Subtraction (Lesson 3)

27. Stan drove 321 miles from home to work. He decided to go out for lunch and drove 134 miles each
way to the local delicatessen. After work, he drove 21 mile to stop at the cleaners and then drove 323
miles home. How many miles did he drive in total?

28. An outside wall consists of 21 inch of drywall, 334 inches of insulation, 58 inch of wall sheathing,
and 1 inch of siding. How thick is the entire wall, in inches?

29. One leg of a table is 110 of an inch too short. If a stack of 500 pieces of paper stands 2 inches tall,
how many pieces of paper will it take to level out the table?

30. The length of a page in a particular book is 8 inches. The top and bottom margins are both
7
8 inch. How long is the page inside the margins, in inches?

31. A rope is cut in half and 21 is discarded. From the remaining half, 41 is cut off and discarded. What
fraction of the original rope is left?

52
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

32. The Boston Marathon is 2615 miles long. At Heartbreak Hill, 2012 miles into the race, how many
miles remain?

33. Howard bought 10,000 shares of VBI stock at 1821 and sold it two weeks later at 2187. How much of
a profit did Howard realize from his stock trades, excluding commissions?

34. A window is 50 inches tall. To make curtains, Anya will need 2 more feet of fabric than the height
of the window. How many yards of fabric will she need?

35. Bob was 7341 inches tall on his 18th birthday. When he was born, he was only 1921 inches long.
How many inches did he grow in 18 years?

36. Richard needs 12 pounds of fertilizer but has only 758 pounds. How many more pounds of fertil-
izer does he need?

37. A certain test is scored by adding 1 point for each correct answer and subtracting 41 of a point for
each incorrect answer. If Jan answered 31 questions correctly and 9 questions incorrectly, what
was her score?

Fraction Multiplication and Division (Lesson 4)

38. A computer can burn a CD 212 times faster than it would take to play the music. How long will it
take to burn 85 minutes of music?

39. A car’s gas tank holds 1025 gallons. How many gallons of gasoline are left in the tank when it is
1
 full?
8

40. Four friends evenly split 621 pounds of cookies. How many pounds of cookies does each get?

41. How many 221-pound chunks of cheese can be cut from a single 20-pound piece of cheese?

42. Each frame of a cartoon is shown for 214 of a second. How many frames are there in a cartoon that
is 2014 seconds long?

43. A painting is 212 feet tall. To hang it properly, a wire must be attached exactly 13 of the way down
from the top. How many inches from the top should the wire be attached?

44. Julio earns $14 an hour. When he works more than 71 hours a day, he gets overtime pay of 11
2 2
times his regular hourly wage for the extra hours. How much did he earn for working 10 hours in
one day?

45. Jodi earned $22.75 for working 31 hours. What was her hourly wage?
2

53
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

46. A recipe for chocolate chip cookies calls for 31 cups of flour. How many cups of flour are needed
2
to make only half the recipe?

47. Of a journey, 45 of the distance was covered on a plane and 16 by driving. If, for the rest of the trip,
5 miles is spent walking, how many miles was the total journey?

48. Mary Jane typed 11 pages of her paper in 31 of an hour. At this rate, how many pages can she
2
expect to type in 6 hours?

49. Bobby is barbecuing 41-pound hamburgers for a picnic. Five of his guests will each eat 2
hamburgers, while he and one other guest will each eat 3 hamburgers. How many pounds
of hamburger meat should Bobby purchase?

50. Juanita can run 31 miles per hour. If she runs for 241 hours, how far will she run, in miles?
2

Skill Building until Next Time

Throughout the day, look around to find things you can use to make into word problems. The word prob-
lem has to involve fractions, so look for groups or portions of a whole. You could use the number of pen-
cils and pens that make up your whole writing instrument supply or the number of cassettes and CDs that
make up your music collection. Write down a word problem and solve it using the word problems in this
lesson to guide you.

54
 – FRACTION SHORTCUTS AND WORD PROBLEMS –

 Answers

Practice Problems

1. 1110 14. 12 27. 1116 40. 158

2. 1218 15. 134 28. 578 41. 8
3. 1330 16. 15 29. 25 42. 486
4. 58 17. 2 30. 614 43. 10
5. 1158 18. 2 31. 38 44. $157.50
6. 112 19. 212 32. 5170 45. $6.50
7. 175 20. 118 33. $33,750 46. 134
8. 172 21. 1341 34. 2118 47. 150
9. 290 22. 15 35. 5334 48. 27
10. 230 23. 47, 37 36. 438 49. 4
11. 23 24. 170 37. 2834 50. 778
12. 12 25. 38 38. 34
13. 49 26. 185 39. 1130

Sample Question 1
2 3 25–33
1. Cross multiply 2  5 and subtract 3  3: 
3  5   
15
10 – 9 1
2. Multiply 3  5, the two bottom numbers: 15  15
 

Sample Question 2 7
2
1. Change each mixed number into an improper fraction —
7
4
and rewrite the division problem:

2. Multiply the extremes to get the top number of the answer:

74 28

27  1
4
3. Multiply the means to get the bottom number of the answer:
28
4. Reduce: 
14 2

55
L E S S O N

6 Introduction to
Decimals

LESSON SUMMARY
The first decimal lesson is an introduction to the concept of decimals.
It explains the relationship between decimals and fractions, teaches you
how to compare decimals, and gives you a tool called rounding for
estimating decimals.

A decimal is a special kind of fraction. You use decimals every day when you deal with measurements
or money. For instance, $10.35 is a decimal that represents 10 dollars and 35 cents. The decimal point
separates the dollars from the cents. Because there are 100 cents in one dollar, 1¢ is 
or $0.01; 10¢ is 10

100 of a dollar, or $0.10; 25¢ is 
25

100 of a dollar, or $0.25; and so forth. In terms of
1
10
0 of a dollar,
measurements,
weather report might indicate that 2.7 inches of rain fell in 4 hours, you might drive 5.8 miles to the intersection
a

of the highway, or the population of the United States might be estimated to grow to 374.3 million people by a
certain year.
If there are digits on both sides of the decimal point, like 6.17, the number is called a mixed decimal; its value
is always greater than 1. In fact, the value of 6.17 is a bit more than 6. If there are digits only to the right of the dec-
imal point, like .17, the number is called a decimal; its value is always less than 1. Sometimes these decimals are
written with a zero in front of the decimal point, like 0.17, to make the number easier to read. A whole number,
like 6, is understood to have a decimal point at its right (6.).

57
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

 Decimal Names

Each decimal digit to the right of the decimal point has a special name. Here are the first four:

.1234
ten thousandths
thousandths
hundredths
tenths

The digits have these names for a very special reason: The names reflect their fraction equivalents.

0.1 = 1 tenth = 110

2
0.02 = 2 hundredths =  
100
3
0.003 = 3 thousandths = 1,0
00
4
0.0004 = 4 ten thousandths =  
10,000

As you can see, decimal names are ordered by multiples of 10: 10ths, 100ths, 1,000ths, 10,000ths, 100,000ths,
1,000,000ths, etc. Be careful not to confuse decimal names with whole number names, which are very similar (tens,
hundreds, thousands, etc.). The naming difference can be seen in the ths, which are used only for decimal digits.

Reading a Decimal
Here’s how to read a mixed decimal; for example, 6.017:

1. The number to the left of the decimal point is a whole number.

Just read that number as you normally would: 6
2. Say the word “and” for the decimal point: and
3. The number to the right of the decimal point is the decimal value.
Just read it: 17
4. The number of places to the right of the decimal point tells you
the decimal’s name. In this case, there are three places: thousandths

17
Thus, 6.017 is read as six and seventeen thousandths, and its fraction equivalent is 6
1,0
00 .
Here’s how to read a decimal; for example, 0.28:

1. Read the number to the right of the decimal point: 28

2. The number of places to the right of the decimal point tells you
the decimal’s name. In this case, there are two places: hundredths

28
Thus, 0.28 (or .28) is read as twenty-eight hundredths, and its fraction equivalent is 
100.

You could also read 0.28 as point two eight, but it doesn’t quite have the same intellectual impact as 28 hundredths!
58
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

Adding Zeroes
Adding zeroes to the end of the decimal does NOT change its value. For example, 6.017 has the same value as each
of these decimals:

6.0170
6.01700
6.017000
6.0170000
6.01700000, and so forth

Remembering that a whole number is assumed to have a decimal point at its right, the whole number 6 has
the same value as each of these:

6.
6.0
6.00
6.000, and so forth

On the other hand, adding zeroes before the first decimal digit does change its value. That is, 6.17 is NOT the same
as 6.017.

Practice
Write out the following decimals in words. Write the following as decimals or mixed decimals.

1. 0.1 ____________________________________ 8. Six tenths

2. 0.01 __________________________________ 9. Six hundredths

3. 0.001 __________________________________ 10. Twenty-five thousandths

4. 0.0001 ________________________________ 11. Three hundred twenty-one

thousandths
5. 0.00001 ________________________________
12. Nine and six thousandths
6. 5.19 __________________________________
13. Three and one ten-thousandth
7. 1.0521 ________________________________
14. Fifteen and two hundred sixteen
thousandths

59
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

 Changing Decimals to Fractions

To change a decimal to a fraction:

1. Write the digits of the decimal as the top number of a fraction.

2. Write the decimal’s name as the bottom number of the fraction.

Example: Change 0.018 to a fraction.

18
1. Write 18 as the top of the fraction: 0

2. Since there are three places to the right of the decimal, it’s thousandths.
18

3. Write 1,000 as the bottom number: 1,0
00
18 ÷ 2 9
÷2  
4. Reduce by dividing 2 into the top and bottom numbers:   
1,000 500

Now try this sample question. Step-by-step solutions to sample questions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
Change the mixed decimal 2.7 to a fraction.

Practice
Change these decimals or mixed decimals to fractions in lowest terms.

15. 0.1 19. 0.005 23. 4.15

16. 0.03 20. 0.125 24. 123.45

17. 0.75 21. 0.046

18. 0.6 22. 5.04

 Changing Fractions to Decimals

To change a fraction to a decimal:

1. Set up a long division problem to divide the bottom number (the divisor) into the top number
(the dividend)—but don’t divide yet!
2. Put a decimal point and a few zeros on the right of the divisor.
3. Bring the decimal point straight up into the area for the answer (the quotient).
4. Divide.

60
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

Example: Change 34 to a decimal.

1. Set up the division problem: 43

2. Add a decimal point and 2 zeroes to the divisor (3): 00
43.
.
3. Bring the decimal point up into the answer: 00
↑
43.
4. Divide: .75
00
43. 
28
20
20
0
Thus, 34 = 0.75, or 75 hundredths.

Sample Question 2
Change 15 to a decimal.

Repeating Decimals
Some fractions may require you to add more than two or three decimal zeros in order for the division to come out
evenly. In fact, when you change a fraction like 23 to a decimal, you’ll keep adding decimal zeros until you’re blue in
the face because the division will never come out evenly! As you divide 3 into 2, you’ll keep getting 6s:

.6666 etc.
00
32. 00
tce.
18
20
18
20
18
20
18
20

A fraction like 32 becomes a repeating decimal. Its decimal value can be written as .6 2
 or .6 3, or it can be approx-
imated as 0.66, 0.666, 0.6666, and so forth. Its value can also be approximated by rounding it to 0.67 or 0.667 or
0.6667, and so forth. (Rounding is covered later in this lesson.)
If you really have fractionphobia and panic when you have to do fraction arithmetic, just convert each frac-
tion to a decimal and do the arithmetic in decimals. Warning: This should be a means of last resort—fractions
are so much a part of daily living that it’s important to be able to work with them.

61
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

Practice
Change these fractions to decimals.

25. 25 30. 78

26. 14 31. 49

27. 170 32. 327

28. 16 33. 434

29. 57 34. 215

 Comparing Decimals

Decimals are easy to compare when they have the same number of digits after the decimal point. Tack zeros onto
the end of the shorter decimals—this doesn’t change their value—and compare the numbers as if the decimal points
weren’t there.

Example: Compare 0.08 and 0.1. (Don’t be tempted into thinking 0.08 is larger than 0.1 just because the
whole number 8 is larger than the whole number 1!)

1. Since 0.08 has two decimal digits, tack one zero onto the end of 0.1, making it 0.10
2. To compare 0.10 to 0.08, just compare 10 to 8. Ten is larger than 8, so 0.1 is larger than 0.08.

Sample Question 3
Put these decimals in order from least to greatest: 0.1, 0.11, 0.101, and 0.011.

Practice
Order each group from lowest to highest.

35. 0.2, 0.05, 0.009 38. 0.82, 0.28, 0.8, 0.2

36. 0.417, 0.422, 0.396 39. 0.3, 0.30, 0.300

37. 0.019, 2.009, 0.01 40. 0.5, 0.05, 0.005, 0.505

62
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

 Rounding Decimals

Rounding a decimal is a means of estimating its value using fewer digits. To find an answer more quickly, espe-
cially if you don’t need an exact answer, you can round each decimal to the nearest whole number before doing
the arithmetic. For example, you could use rounding to approximate the sum of 3.456789 and 16.738532:


3.456789 is close to 3 Approximate their sum: 3  17  20
16.738532 is close to 17

Since 3.456789 is closer to 3 than it is to 4, it can be rounded down to 3, the nearest whole number. Similarly,
16.738532 is closer to 17 than it is to 16, so it can be rounded up to 17, the nearest whole number.
Rounding may also be used to simplify a single figure, like the answer to some arithmetic operation. For exam-
ple, if your investment yielded $14,837,812.98 (wishful thinking!), you could simplify it as approximately $15 mil-
lion, rounding it to the nearest million dollars.
Rounding is a good way to do a reasonableness check on the answer to a decimal arithmetic problem: Esti-
mate the answer to a decimal arithmetic problem and compare it to the actual answer to be sure it’s in the ballpark.

Rounding to the Nearest Whole Number

To round a decimal to the nearest whole number, look at the decimal digit to the right of the whole number, the
tenths digit, and follow these guidelines:

■ If the digit is less than 5, round down by dropping the decimal point and all the decimal digits. The whole
number portion remains the same.
■ If the digit is 5 or more, round up to the next larger whole number.

Examples of rounding to the nearest whole number:

■ 25.3999 rounds down to 25 because 3 is less than 5.

■ 23.5 rounds up to 24 because the tenths digit is 5.
■ 2.613 rounds up to 3 because 6 is greater than 5.

Practice
Round each decimal to the nearest whole number.

41. 0.03 44. 3.33

42. 0.796 45. 8.5

43. 9.49 46. 7.8298

63
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

Rounding to the Nearest Tenth

Decimals can be rounded to the nearest tenth in a similar fashion. Look at the digit to its right, the hundredths
digit, and follow these guidelines:

■ If the digit is less than 5, round down by dropping that digit and all the decimal digits following it.
■ If the digit is 5 or more, round up by making the tenths digit one greater and dropping all the digits to
its right.

Examples of rounding to the nearest tenth:

■ 45.32 rounds down to 45.3 because 2 is less than 5.

■ 33.15 rounds up to 33.2 because the hundredths digit is 5.
■ $14,837,812 rounds down to $14.8 million, the nearest tenth of a million dollars, because 3 is less than 5.
■ 2.96 rounds up to 3.0 because 6 is greater than 5. Notice that you cannot simply make the tenths digit, 9,
one greater—that would make it 10. Therefore, the 9 becomes a zero and the whole number becomes one
greater.

Similarly, decimals can be rounded to the nearest hundredth, thousandth, and so forth by looking at the next dec-
imal digit to the right:

■ If it’s less than 5, round down.

■ If it’s 5 or more, round up.

Practice
Round each decimal to the nearest tenth.

47. 4.76 50. 9.49 52. 12.09

48. 19.85 51. 2.97 53. 7.8298

49. 0.818

Skill Building until Next Time

As you pay for things throughout the day, take a look at the prices. Are they written in dollars and cents?
If so, how would you read the numbers aloud using the terms discussed in this lesson? For a bit of a chal-
lenge, insert a zero in the tenths column of the number, thereby pushing the two numbers right of the dec-
imal place one place to the right. Now how would you say the amount out loud? Learning how to correctly
express decimals verbally will show others how math-savvy you are!

64
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

 Answers

Practice Problems
1
1. One tenth 19.  
200 38. 0.2, 0.28, 0.8, 0.82
2. One hundredth 20. 18 39. All have the same value
3. One thousandth 21.  23 40. 0.005, 0.05, 0.5, 0.505
500
4. One ten-thousandth 41. 0
22. 5215
5. One hundred-thousandth 42. 1
23. 4230
6. Five and nineteen hundredths 43. 9
7. One and five hundred 24. 123290 44. 3
twenty-one ten-thousandths 25. 0.4 45. 9
8. 0.6 (or .6) 26. 0.25 46. 8
9. 0.06 27. 0.7 47. 4.8
2
10. 0.025  or 163
28. 0.16 48. 19.9
11. 0.321 14285
29. 0.7 49. 0.8
12. 9.006 30. 0.875 50. 9.5
13. 3.0001 
31. 0.4 51. 3.0
14. 15.216 32. 3.285714 52. 12.1
15. 110 33. 4.75 53. 7.8
3
16.  100 34. 2.2
3 35. 0.009, 0.05, 0.2
17. 4
18. 25 36. 0.396, 0.417, 0.422
37. 0.01, 0.019, 2.009

65
 – INTRODUCTION TO DECIMALS –

Sample Question 1
1. Write 2 as the whole number: 2
2. Write 7 as the top of the fraction: 2 7
0
3. Since there is only one digit to the right of the decimal, it’s tenths.
7
4. Write 10 as the bottom number: 21
0

Sample Question 2
1. Set up the division problem: 
51
2. Add a decimal point and a zero to the divisor (1): .0
51 .
3. Bring the decimal point up into the answer: ↑.
51 0
4. Divide: .2
.0
51 
10
0
1
Thus, 5 = 0.2, or 2 tenths.

Sample Question 3
1. Since 0.0111 has the greatest number of decimal places (4),
tack zeroes onto the ends of the other decimals so they
all have 4 decimal places: 0.1000 0.1100
0.1010 0.0111
2. Ignore the decimal points and compare the whole numbers: 1,000 1,100 1,010 111
3. The low-to-high sequence of the whole numbers is: 111 1,000 1,010 1,100
Thus, the low-to-high sequence of the original decimals is: 0.0111 0.1 0.101 0.11

66
L E S S O N

Adding and

7 Subtracting
Decimals
LESSON SUMMARY
This second decimal lesson focuses on addition and subtraction of
decimals. It ends by teaching you how to add or subtract decimals and
fractions together.

Y ou have to add and subtract decimals all the time, especially when dealing with money. This lesson
shows you how and gives you some word problems to demonstrate how practical this skill is in real
life as well as on tests.

 Adding Decimals

There is a crucial difference between adding decimals and adding whole numbers; the difference is the decimal
point. The position of this point determines the accuracy of your final answer; a problem solver cannot simply
ignore the point and add it in wherever it “looks” best. In order to add decimals correctly, follow these three sim-
ple rules:

1. Line the numbers up in a column so their decimal points are aligned.

2. Tack zeros onto the ends of shorter decimals to keep the digits lined up evenly.
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer area and add as usual.

67
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Example: 3.45  22.1  0.682

1. Line up the numbers so their decimal points are even: 3.45

22.1
0.682
2. Tack zeros onto the ends of the shorter decimals to fill in the “holes”: 3.450
+ 22.100
+ 0.682
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer area and add: + 26.232

To check the reasonableness of your work, estimate the sum by using the rounding technique you learned in
Lesson 6. Round each number you added to the nearest whole number, and then add the resulting whole num-
bers. If the sum is close to your answer, your answer is in the ballpark. Otherwise, you may have made a mistake
in placing the decimal point or in the adding. Rounding 3.45, 22.1, and 0.682 gives you 3, 22, and 1. Their sum is
26, which is reasonably close to your actual answer of 26.232. Therefore, 26.232 is a reasonable answer.
Look at an example that adds decimals and whole numbers together. Remember: A whole number is under-
stood to have a decimal point to its right.

Example: 0.6 + 35 + 0.0671 + 4.36

1. Put a decimal point at the right of the whole number (35) and
line up the numbers so their decimal points are aligned: 0.6
35.
0.0671
4.36
2. Tack zeros onto the ends of the shorter decimals to fill in the “holes”: +0.6000
35.0000
0.0671
+ 4.3600
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer area and add: + 40.0271

Now you try this sample question. Step-by-step answers to sample questions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
12 + 0.1 + 0.02 + 0.943

68
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Practice
Where should the decimal point be placed in each sum?

1. 3.5 + 3.7 = 72 5. 4.835 + 1.217 = 6052

2. 1.4 + 0.8 = 22 6. 9.32 + 4.1 = 1342

3. 1.79 + 0.21 = 200 7. 7.42 + 125.931 = 133351

4. 4.13 + 2.07 + 5.91 = 1211 8. 6.1 + 0.28 + 4 = 1038

Add the following decimals.

9. 1.789 + 0.219 13. 6.1 + 0.2908 + 4

10. 1.48 + 0.9 14. 14.004 + 0.9 + 0.21

11. 3.59 + 6 15. 1.03 + 2.5 + 40.016

12. 10.7 + 8.935 16. 5.2 + 0.7999 + 0.0001

 Subtracting Decimals

When subtracting decimals, follow the same initial steps as in adding to ensure that you’re adding the correct
digits and that the decimal point ends up in the right place.

Example: 4.873 – 1.7

1. Line up the numbers so their decimal points are aligned: 4.8731

1.7000
2. Tack zeros onto the end of the shorter decimal to fill in the “holes”: – 4.8731
– 1.7000
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer and subtract: – 3.1731

69
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Subtraction is easily checked by adding the number that was subtracted to the difference (the answer). If you
get back the other number in the subtraction problem, then your answer is correct. For example, let’s check our
last subtraction problem.

Here’s the subtraction: – 4.8731

– 1.7000
– 3.1731
1. Add the number that was subtracted (1.7000) to the difference (3.1731): + 1.7000
2. The subtraction is correct because we got back the other number in 4.8731
the subtraction problem (4.8731).

Checking your subtraction is so easy that you should never pass up the opportunity!
You can check the reasonableness of your work by estimating: Round each number to the nearest whole num-
ber and subtract. Rounding 4.873 and 1.7 gives 5 and 2. Since their difference of 3 is close to your actual answer,
3.1731 is reasonable.

Borrowing
Next, look at a subtraction example that requires “borrowing.” Notice that borrowing works exactly the same as
it does when you’re subtracting whole numbers.

Example: 2 – 0.456

1. Put a decimal point at the right of the whole number (2) and line up
the numbers so their decimal points are aligned: 2.
0.456

2. Tack zeros onto the end of the shorter decimal to fill in the “holes”: 2.000
0.456
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer and subtract 99
1 10 10 10
after borrowing: – 2.000
– .456
– 1.544

4. Check the subtraction by addition: + 1.544

+ 0.456
Our answer is correct because we got back the first number in the + 2.000
subtraction problem.

Sample Question 2
78 – 0.78

70
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

 Combining Addition and Subtraction

The best way to solve problems that combine addition and subtraction is to “uncombine” them; separate the num-
bers to be added from the numbers to be subtracted by forming two columns. Add each of the columns and you’re
left with two figures; subtract one from the other and you have your answer.

Example: 0.7  4.33 – 2.46  0.0861 – 1.2

1. Line up the numbers to be added so their decimal points are aligned: 0.7
4.33
0.0861
2. Tack zeros onto the ends of the shorter decimals to fill in the “holes”: + 0.7000
4.3300
+ 0.0861
3. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer and add: + 5.1161
4. Line up the numbers to be subtracted so their decimal points are aligned: 2.46
1.20
5. Tack zeros onto the end of the shorter decimal to fill in the “holes”: + 2.46
+ 1.20
6. Move the decimal point directly down into the answer area and add: + 3.66
7. Subtract the step 6 answer from the step 3 answer, lining up the decimal – 5.1161
points, filling in the “holes” with zeroes, and moving the decimal point – 3.6600
directly down into the answer area: 1.4561

Sample Question 3
12 + 0.1 – 0.02 + 0.943 – 2.3

Practice
Subtract the following decimals.

17. 6.4 – 1.3 21. 5 – 3.81

18. 1.89 – 0.37 22. 3.2 – 1.23

19. 12.35 – 8.05 23. 1 – 0.98765

20. 2.35 – 0.9 24. 2.4 – 2.3999

71
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Add and subtract the following decimals.

25. 6.4 – 1.3 + 1.2 29. 4.7 + 2.41 – 0.8 – 1.77

26. 8.7 – 3.2 + 4 30. 1 – 0.483 + 3.17

27. 5.48 + 0.448 – 0.24 31. 14 – 0.15 + 0.8 – 0.2

28. 7 – 0.3 – 3.1 + 3.8 32. 22.2 – 3.3 – 4.4 – 5.5

Word Problems
Word problems 33–40 involve decimal addition, subtraction, and rounding. If you are unfamiliar with or need
brushing up on solving word problems, refer to Lessons 15 and 16 for extra help.

33. Inez drove 2.8 miles to the grocery store and then drove 0.3 miles to the cleaners and 1.7 miles to
the bakery. After she drove 4 miles to lunch, she drove 2.1 miles home. How many miles did she
drive in all?
a. 7.3
b. 9.9
c. 10.9
d. 12.6
e. 13.6

34. Steve goes from 218.2 pounds down to 199.75 pounds in six months. How much weight did
he lose?
a. 16.03 lbs.
b. 18.08 lbs.
c. 14.26 lbs.
d. 18.45 lbs.

35. At a price of $0.82 per pound, which of the following comes closest to the cost of a turkey
weighing 941 pounds?
a. $6.80
b. $7.00
c. $7.60
d. $8.20
e. $9.25

72
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

36. On Monday, Ricky had $385.38 in his checking account. He made a deposit of $250.00 on Tues-
day. On Wednesday, he paid his telephone bill of $82.60 and made his car payment of $241.37.
How much money did he have left in his checking account after paying both bills?
a. $301.41
b. $311.41
c. $312.41
d. $459.35
e. $959.35

37. Ashley bought three things that each cost $1.95, and two things that cost $2.49 each. How much
did she spend in all?
a. $10.83
b. $9.83
c. $10.03
d. $8.93

38. Clark bought four items at the grocery store that cost $1.99, $2.49, $3.50, and $6.85. The cashier
told him that the total was $22.83. Was that reasonable? Why or why not?

39. Carl Lewis won the men’s 200-meter dash in the 1984 Olympics with a time of 19.8 seconds. Four
years later, Joe Leach won the same event with a time of 19.75 seconds. Which runner was faster,
and how much faster was he?

40. Bob and Carol took a vacation together. Their largest expenses were $952.58 for hotels, $1,382.84
for airfare, and $454.39 for meals. Bob paid for the hotel and meals, while Carol paid for the air-
fare. Who spent more money? How much more?

73
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

 Working with Decimals and Fractions Together

When a problem contains both decimals and fractions, it’s usually easiest to change the numbers to the same type,
either decimals or fractions, depending on which you’re more comfortable working with. Consult Lesson 6 if you
need to review changing a decimal into a fraction and vice versa.

3
Example:   0.37
8

Fraction-to-decimal conversion:

1. Convert 38 to its decimal equivalent: 0.375

00
83. 0
24
60
56
40
40
0
2. Add the decimals after lining up the decimal points and + 0.375
filling the “holes” with zeros: + 0.370
+ 0.745

Decimal-to-fraction conversion:

37
1. Convert 0.37 to its fraction equivalent: 
100
37 74
2. Add the fractions after finding the least common denominator:  = 
100 200
+ 38 = 75

200
149

200
149
Both answers, 0.745 and  20
0 , are correct. You can easily check this by converting the fraction to the decimal or
the decimal to the fraction.

Practice
Add these decimals and fractions.

41. 12 + 0.5 46. 0.3 + 170

42. 14 + 0.25 47. 3.15 + 234

43. 58 + 0.5 48. 2.75 + 152

44. 4.9 + 130 49. 13 + 0.6

45. 230 + 2.6

74
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Skill Building until Next Time

Look for a sales receipt from a recent shopping trip, preferably one with several items on it. Randomly select
three items and rewrite them on a separate sheet of paper. Add a zero to each number, but add it to a dif-
ferent place in each one. For instance, you could add a zero to the right side of one number, the center
of another, and the tenths column of another. Now add the column of newly created numbers. Then check
your answer. Did you remember to align the decimal points before adding? Practice this kind of exercise
with everything you buy, or think of buying, during the day.

 Answers

Practice Problems
1. 7.2 18. 1.52 35. c.
2. 2.2 19. 4.3 36. b.
3. 2.0 20. 1.45 37. a.
4. 12.11 21. 1.19 38. No. If you round to whole
5. 6.052 22. 1.97 numbers and add, you get
6. 13.42 23. 0.01235 $15.00.
7. 133.351 24. 0.0001 39. Leach, 0.05 seconds
8. 10.38 25. 6.3 40. Bob, $24.13
9. 2.008 26. 9.5 41. 1
10. 2.38 27. 5.688 42. 0.5 or 12
11. 9.59 28. 7.4 43. 1.125 or 118
12. 19.635 29. 4.54 44. 5.2
13. 10.3908 30. 3.687 45. 2.75 or 234
14. 15.114 31. 14.45 46. 1
15. 43.546 32. 9 or 9.0 47. 5.9 or 5190
16. 6 33. c. 48. 3.16 or 316
17. 5.1 34. d. 49. 0.93 or 1145

75
 – ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS –

Sample Question 1
1. Line up the numbers and fill the “holes” with zeros, like this: 12.000
0.100
00.020
+ 0.943
2. Move the decimal point down into the answer and add: 13.063

Sample Question 2
1. Line up the numbers and fill the “holes” with zeros, like this: 78.00
– 0.78
2. Move the decimal point down into the answer and subtract: 77.22
3. Check the subtraction by addition: + 0.78
It’s correct: You got back the other number in the problem. 78.00

Sample Question 3
1. Line up the numbers to be added and fill the “holes” with zeros: 12.000
0.100
+ 0.943
2. Move the decimal point down into the answer and add: 13.043

3. Line up the numbers to be subtracted and fill the “holes” with zeros: 0.02
+ 2.30
4. Move the decimal point down into the answer and add: 2.32

5. Subtract the sum of step 4 from the sum of step 2, after lining up the decimal
points and filling the “holes” with zeros: 13.043
– 2.320
10.723
6. Check the subtraction by addition: + 2.320
It’s correct: You got back the other number in the problem. 13.043

76
L E S S O N

Multiplying

8 and Dividing
Decimals
LESSON SUMMARY
This final decimal lesson focuses on multiplication and division.

Y ou may not have to multiply and divide decimals as often as you have to add and subtract them—
though the word problems in this lesson show some practical examples of multiplication and divi-
sion of decimals. However, questions on multiplying and dividing decimals often show up on tests,
so it’s important to know how to handle them.

 Multiplying Decimals

To multiply decimals:

1. Ignore the decimal points and multiply as you would whole numbers.
2. Count the number of decimal digits (the digits to the right of the decimal point) in both of the numbers
you multiplied.
3. Beginning at the right side of the product (the answer), count left that number of digits and put the deci-
mal point to the left of the last digit you counted.

77
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

Example: 1.57  2.4

1. Multiply 157 times 24: 157

 24
628
3140
3768
2. Because there are a total of three decimal digits in 1.57 and 2.4,
count off 3 places from the right in 3768 and place the decimal point
to the left of the third digit you counted (7): 3.768


To check the reasonableness of your work, estimate the product by using the rounding technique you learned
in Lesson 6. Round each number you multiplied to the nearest whole number and then multiply the results. If the
product is close to your answer, your answer is in the ballpark. Otherwise, you may have made a mistake in plac-
ing the decimal point or in multiplying. Rounding 1.57 and 2.4 to the nearest whole numbers gives you 2 and 2.
Their product is 4, which is close to your answer. Thus, your actual answer of 3.768 seems reasonable.

Now you try. Remember, step-by-step answers to sample questions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
3.26  2.7

In multiplying decimals, you may get a product that doesn’t have enough digits for you to put in a decimal
point. In that case, tack zeros onto the left of the product to give your answer enough digits; then add the deci-
mal point.

Example: 0.03  0.006

1. Multiply 3 times 6: 3  6  18
2. The answer requires 5 decimal digits because there are a total of
five decimal digits in 0.03 and 0.006. Because there are only 2 digits
in the answer (18), tack three zeros onto the left: 00018
3. Put the decimal point at the front of the number (which is 5 digits in
from the right): .00018


Sample Question 2
0.4  0.2

78
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

Multiplication Shortcut
To quickly multiply a number by 10, just move the decimal point one digit to the right. To multiply a number by
100, move the decimal point two digits to the right. To multiply a number by 1,000, move the decimal point three
digits to the right. In general, just count the number of zeros and move the decimal point that number of digits
to the right. If you don’t have enough digits, first tack zeros onto the right.

Example: 1,000  3.82

1. Since there are three zeros in 1,000, move the decimal point in 3.82
three digits to the right.
2. Since 3.82 has only two decimal digits to the right of the decimal point,
add one zero on the right before moving the decimal point: 3.820

Thus, 1,000  3.82  3,820

Practice
Multiply these decimals.

1. 0.01  0.6 6. 78.2  0.0412

2. 3.1  4 7. 2.5  0.0034

3. 0.1  0.2 8. 10  3.64

4. 15  0.21 9. 100  0.01765

5. 0.875  8 10. 1,000  38.71

79
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

 Dividing Decimals

Dividing Decimals by Whole Numbers

To divide a decimal by a whole number, bring the decimal point straight up into the answer (the quotient) and
then divide as you would normally divide whole numbers.

51
Example: 40.2
.
1. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient area: ↑51
40.2
2. Divide: 0.128
51
40.2
4
11
8
32
32
0
3. To check your division, multiply the quotient (0.128) by the divisor (4). 0.128
 4
If you get back the dividend (0.512), you know you divided correctly. 0.512

Sample Question 3
.1
5025


Dividing by Decimals
To divide any number by a decimal, first change the problem into one in which you’re dividing by a whole number.

1. Move the decimal point to the right of the number you’re dividing by (the divisor).
2. Move the decimal point the same number of places to the right in the number you’re dividing into (the
dividend).
3. Bring the decimal point straight up into the answer (the quotient) and divide.

80
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

21
Example: 0.031. 5

1. Because there are two decimal digits in .03, move the decimal point
 1.
two places to the right in both numbers: 0.03. 21.5

. 
2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: 1.
3.12 5
↑

3. Divide using the new numbers: 40.5

1.
312 5
12
01
00
15
15
0

Under the following conditions, you’ll have to tack zeros onto the right of the last decimal digit in the div-
idend, the number you’re dividing into:

Case 1. There aren’t enough digits to move the decimal point to the right.
Case 2. The answer doesn’t come out evenly when you divide.
Case 3. You’re dividing a whole number by a decimal. In this case, you’ll have to tack on the decimal point
as well as some zeroes.

Case 1
There aren’t enough digits to move the decimal point to the right.

2
Example: 0.031.

1. Because there are two decimal digits in 0.03, the decimal point must be
moved two places to the right in both numbers. Since there aren’t enough
decimal digits in 1.2, tack a zero onto the end of 1.2 before moving the
 1.
decimal point: 0.03. 20
.


2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: 0.

3.12↑
3. Divide using the new numbers: 40.
0.
312
12
00
00
0

81
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

Case 2
The answer doesn’t come out evenly when you divide.

2
Example: 0.51.

1. Because there is one decimal digit in 0.5, the decimal point must be
 1.
moved one place to the right in both numbers: 0.5. 2.
.
2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: .↑
5.12
3. Divide, but notice that the division doesn’t come out evenly: 2.
.
512
10
2
4. Add a zero to the end of the dividend (12.) and continue dividing: 2.4
.0
512
10
20
20
0

0
Example: 0.3.1

1. Because there is one decimal digit in 0.3, the decimal point must be
 .1
moved one place to the right in both numbers: 0.3. .0

.
2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: 0
↑
3.1.
3. Divide, but notice that the division doesn’t come out evenly: 0.3
0
31.
9
1
4. Add a zero to the end of the dividend (1.0) and continue dividing: 0.33
00
31.
9
10
9
1
5. Since the division still did not come out evenly, add another zero to the
end of the dividend (1.00) and continue dividing: 0.333
00
31.0
9
10
9
10
9
1

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 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

6. By this point, you have probably noticed that the quotient is a repeating
decimal. Thus, you can stop dividing and write the quotient like this: 0.3

Case 3
When you’re dividing a whole number by a decimal, you have to tack on the decimal point as well as some zeros.


Example: 0.0219

1. There are two decimals in 0.02, so we have to move the decimal point
to the right two places in both numbers. Because 19 is a whole number,
put its decimal point at the end (19.), add two zeros to the end (19.00),
and then move the decimal point to the right twice (1900.): 0.02.

19
.0 0.

. 
2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: 00
2.19 .↑
3. Divide using the new numbers: 950
2 19
00
18
10
10
00
00
0

Sample Question 4

0.063

Division Shortcut
To divide a number by 10, just move the decimal point in the number one digit to the left. To divide a number
by 100, move the decimal point two digits to the left. Just count the number of zeros and move the decimal point
that number of digits to the left. If you don’t have enough digits, tack zeros onto the left before moving the dec-
imal point.

Example: Divide 12.345 by 1,000.

1. Since there are three zeroes in 1,000, move the decimal point in 12.345
three digits to the left.
2. Since 12.345 only has two digits to the left of its decimal point, add
one zero at the left, and then move the decimal point: 0.012.345


Thus, 12.345 ÷ 1,000  0.012345

83
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

Practice
Divide.

4
11. 71. .1
15. 0.0416 6 
19. 3.275

.2
12. 451  2
16. 0.72. 07
20. 0.60. 

.6
13. 811  
17. 0.517 9.
21. 1019 6

41
14. 0.31.  6
18. 0.00425 .1
22. 10083 74


 Decimal Word Problems

The following are word problems involving decimal multiplication and division. (If you are unfamiliar with word
problems or need brushing up on how to solve them, consult Lessons 15 and 16 for extra help.)

23. Luis earns $7.25 per hour. Last week, he 27. One almond contains 0.07 milligrams
worked 37.5 hours. How much money of iron. How many almonds would be
did he earn that week, rounded to the needed to get the daily recommended
nearest cent? amount of 14 milligrams of iron?

24. At $6.50 per pound, how much do 2.75 28. If Cheddar cheese costs $4.00 a pound,
pounds of cookies cost, rounded to the how many pounds can you get for
nearest cent? $2.50?

25. Anne drove her car to the mall, averag- 29. Mrs. Robinson has a stack of small
ing 40.2 miles per hour for 1.6 hours. boxes, all the same size. If the stack
How many miles did she drive? measures 35 inches and each box is
2.5 inches high, how many boxes does
26. Jordan walked a total of 12.4 miles in 4 she have?
days. On average, how many miles did
he walk each day?

Skill Building until Next Time

Write down how much money you earn per hour (include both dollars and cents). If you earn a monthly
or weekly salary, divide your salary by the number of hours in a month or week to get your hourly wage.
If you don’t have a job right now, invent a wage for yourself—and make it generous. Divide your hourly
wage by 60 to see how much money you earn each minute. Then multiply your hourly wage by the num-
ber of hours you work per week to find your weekly wage; round your answer to the nearest dollar.

84
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

 Answers

Practice Problems
1. 0.006 9. 1.765 17. 34 25. 64.32
2. 12.4 10. 38,710 18. 64,000 26. 3.1
3. 0.02 11. 0.2 19. 23.4375 27. 200
4. 31.5 12. 12.8 20. 0.116 28. 0.625
5. 7 or 7.000 13. 1.45 21. 19.96 29. 14
6. 3.22184 14. 4.7 22. 0.83174
7. 0.0085 15. 404 23. $271.88
8. 36.4 16. 3.142857 24. $17.88

Sample Question 1
1. Multiply 326 times 27: 326
 27
2282
6520
8802

2. Because there are a total of three decimal digits in 3.25 and 1.8, count off
three places from the right in 8802 and place the decimal point to the left of
the third digit you counted (8): 8.802


3. Reasonableness check: Round both numbers to the nearest whole number

and multiply: 3  3  9, which is reasonably close to your answer of 8.802.

Sample Question 2
1. Multiply 4 times 2:  4
 2
8
2. The answer requires two decimal digits. Because there is only one digit in
the answer (8), tack one zero onto the left: 08
3. Put the decimal point at the front of the number (which is two digits in
from the right): .08


4. Reasonableness check: Round both numbers to the nearest whole number and
multiply: 0  0  0, which is reasonably close to your answer of 0.08.

85
 – MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS –

Sample Question 3 .
1. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: ↑.
50 5
12

2. Divide: 0.025
.1
5025

000
120
100
25
25
0
3. Check: Multiply the quotient (0.025) by the divisor (5). 0.025
 5
0.125
Since you got back the dividend (0.125), the division is correct.

Sample Question 4
1. Because there are two decimal digits in 0.06, the decimal point must be
moved two places to the right in both numbers. Since there aren’t enough
decimal digits in 3, tack a decimal point and two zeros onto the end of 3
before moving the decimal point: .06.

3
0
0.
.
.
2. Move the decimal point straight up into the quotient: 0
6.3 0
↑.

3. Divide using the new numbers: 50.

0
630
.
300.
00.
00.
0.

4. Check: Multiply the quotient (50) by the original divisor (0.06).  0.50
 0.06
 3.00
Since you got back the original dividend (3), the division is correct.

86
L E S S O N

9 Working with
Percents

LESSON SUMMARY
This first percent lesson is an introduction to the concept of percents.
It explains the relationships between percents, decimals, and fractions.

A percent is a special kind of fraction or part of something. The bottom number (the denominator)
is always 100. For example, 5% is the same as  5
10
0 . Literally, the word percent means per 100 parts.
The root cent means 100: A century is 100 years, there are 100 cents in a dollar, etc. Thus, 5% means
5 parts out of 100. Fractions can also be expressed as decimals: 
fore, 5% is also equivalent to the decimal 0.05.
5
100 is equivalent to 0.05 (five-hundredths). There-

You come into contact with percents every day: Sales tax, interest, tips, inflation rates, and discounts are just
a few common examples.
If you’re shaky on fractions, you may want to review the fraction lessons before reading further.

87
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

 Changing Percents to Decimals

To change a percent to a decimal, drop the percent sign and move the decimal point two digits to the left.
Remember: If a number doesn’t have a decimal point, it’s assumed to be at the right. If there aren’t enough dig-
its to move the decimal point, add zeros on the left before moving the decimal point.

Example: Change 20% to a decimal.

1. Drop the percent sign: 20

2. There’s no decimal point, so put it at the right: 20.
3. Move the decimal point two digits to the left: 0.20.

Thus, 20% is equivalent to 0.20, which is the same as 0.2.
(Remember: Zeros at the right of a decimal don’t change its value.)

Now you try this sample question. The step-by-step solution is at the end of this lesson.

Sample Question 1
Change 75% to a decimal.

 Changing Decimals to Percents

To change a decimal to a percent, move the decimal point two digits to the right. If there aren’t enough digits to
move the decimal point, add zeros on the right before moving the decimal point. If the decimal point moves to
the very right of the number, don’t write the decimal point. Finally, tack on a percent sign (%) at the end.

Example: Change 0.2 to a percent.

1. Move the decimal point two digits to the right after adding one zero
on the right so there are enough decimal digits: 0.20.


2. The decimal point moved to the very right, so remove it: 20

3. Tack on a percent sign: 20%
Thus, 0.2 is equivalent to 20%.

Sample Questions 2 and 3

Change 0.875 to a percent.
Change 0.7 to a percent.

88
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

Practice
Change these percents to decimals.

1. 1% 5. 0.04%

2. 19% 6. 114%

3. 0.001% 7. 8712%

4. 4.25% 8. 150%

Change these decimals to percents.

9. 0.85 13. 0.031

10. 0.9 14. 0.667

11. 0.02 15. 2.5

12. 0.008 16. 1.25

 Changing Percents to Fractions

To change a percent to a fraction, remove the percent sign and write the number over 100; then reduce if possible.

Example: Change 20% to a fraction.

20

1. Remove the % and write the fraction 20 over 100: 100
20 ÷ 20 1
3. Reduce:   5
100 ÷ 20

Example: Change 1623% to a fraction.

1623
1. Remove the % and write the fraction 1623 over 100: 
100

2. Since a fraction means “top number divided by bottom number,”

rewrite the fraction as a division problem: 1623 ÷ 100

3. Change the mixed number (1623) to an improper fraction (530): 50 100

3 ÷ 1
1
100 50 1 1
4. Flip the second fraction (1) and multiply:     = 
3 
100 6
2

89
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

Sample Question 4
Change 3313% to a fraction.

 Changing Fractions to Percents

To change a fraction to a percent, there are two techniques. Each is illustrated by changing the fraction 51 to a percent.

■ Technique 1: Multiply the fraction by 100%. 20

%
Multiply 51 by 100%: 1 100
   = 20%
5 1
100 1
Note: Change 100 to its fractional equivalent, 1 , before multiplying.
■ Technique 2: Divide the fraction’s bottom number into the top number;
then move the decimal point two digits to the right and tack on a percent sign (%).
Divide 5 into 1, move the decimal point 2 digits to the right, and tack on a 0.20 → 0.20.
 → 20%
percent sign: 51.00

Note: You can get rid of the decimal point because it’s at the extreme right of 20.

Sample Question 5
Change 19 to a percent.

Practice
Change these percents to fractions.

17. 3% 21. 3.75%

18. 25% 22. 37.5%

19. 0.03% 23. 8712%

20. 60% 24. 110%

Change these fractions to percents.

25. 12 28. 74

26. 16 29. 158

27. 1295 30. 58

90
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

 Common Equivalences of Percents, Fractions, and Decimals

You may find that it is sometimes more convenient to work with a percent as a fraction or as a decimal. Rather
than having to calculate the equivalent fraction or decimal, consider memorizing the following equivalence table.
Not only is this practical for real-life situations, but it will also increase your efficiency on a math test. For exam-
ple, suppose you have to calculate 50% of some number. Looking at the table, you can see that 50% of a number
is the same as half of that number, which is easier to figure out!

CONVERTING DECIMALS, PERCENTS, AND FRACTIONS

DECIMAL PERCENT FRACTION

1
0.25 25% 
4

1
0.5 50% 
2

3
0.75 75% 
4

1

0.1 10% 1
0

1
0.2 20% 
5

2
0.4 40% 
5

3
0.6 60% 
5

4
0.8 80% 
5


0.3 3313% 1

3


0.6 6623% 2

3

1
0.125 12.5% 
8

3
0.375 37.5% 
8

5
0.625 62.5% 
8

7
0.875 87.5% 
8

Practice
After memorizing the table, cover up any two columns with a piece of paper and write the equivalences. Check
your work to see how many numbers you remembered correctly. Do this exercise several times, with sufficient time
between to truly test your memory.

91
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

Skill Building until Next Time

Find out what your local sales tax is. (Some places have a sales tax of 3% or 6.5%, for example.) Try your
hand at converting that percentage into a fraction and reducing it to its lowest terms. Then, go back to the
original sales tax percentage and convert it into a decimal. Now you’ll be able to recognize your sales tax
no matter what form it’s written in. Try the same thing with other percentages you come across during the
day, such as price discounts or the percentage of your paycheck that’s deducted for federal or state tax.

 Answers

Practice Problems

3
1. 0.01 9. 85% 17.  
100 25. 50%
1
2. 0.19 10. 90% 18. 
4 26. 16.6% or 1623%
3
3. 0.00001 11. 2% 19.  
10,000 27. 76%
3
4. 0.0425 12. 0.8% 20.  28. 175%
5
3
5. 0.0004 13. 3.1% 21. 8 29. 360%
0
3
6. 0.0125 14. 66.7% 22. 
8 30. 62.5% or 6212%
7
7. 0.875 15. 250% 23. 
8
8. 1.50 16. 125% 24. 1110

Sample Question 1
1. Drop off the percent sign: 75
2. There’s no decimal point, so put one at the right: 75.
3. Move the decimal point two digits to the left: 0.75.


Thus, 75% is equivalent to 0.75.

Sample Question 2
1. Move the decimal point two digits to the right: 0.87
.5

2. Tack on a percent sign: 87.5%

Thus, 0.875 is equivalent to 87.5%.

92
 – WORKING WITH PERCENTS –

Sample Question 3
Don’t be tempted into thinking that 0.7 is 7%, because it’s not!
1. Move the decimal point two digits to the right after
tacking on a zero: 0.70.


2. Remove the decimal point because it’s at the extreme right: 70

3. Tack on a percent sign: 70%

Thus, 0.7 is equivalent to 70%.

Sample Question 4
1 3313
1. Remove the % and write the fraction 333 over 100: 
100

2. Since a fraction means “top number divided by bottom number,”

1
rewrite the fraction as a division problem: 333 ÷ 100
1 100 100 100
3. Change the mixed number (333) to an improper fraction (3): 
3 ÷ 1
1
100 
100 1 1
4. Flip the second fraction (1) and multiply: 
3 
  = 
100 3
1
1 1
Thus, 333% is equivalent to the fraction 3.

Sample Question 5
Technique 1:
1 1 100% 100
1. Multiply 9 by 100%:   
9
  
1 9%
100 100
2. Convert the improper fraction (9) to a decimal: % = 11.1
9 %
100
Or, change it to a mixed number: %
9 = 1191%
1 1
% and 119%.
Thus, 9 is equivalent to both 11.1

Technique 2:
1. Divide the fraction’s bottom number (9) into the top number (1): 0.111 etc.
.0
910  etc.
0
0
10
9
10
9
10
2. Move the decimal point in the quotient two digits to the right
and tack on a percent sign (%): %
11.1
1
% is equivalent to 119%.
Note: 11.1

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L E S S O N

10 Percent
Word Problems

LESSON SUMMARY
The second percent lesson focuses on the three main varieties of percent
word problems and some real-life applications.

W ord problems involving percents come in three main varieties:

1. Find a percent of a whole.

Example: What is 15% of 50? (50 is the whole.)
2. Find what percent one number (the “part”) is of another number (the “whole”).
Example: 10 is what percent of 40? (40 is the whole.)
3. Find the whole when the percent of it is given as a part.
Example: 20 is 40% of what number? (20 is the part.)

While each variety has its own approach, there is a single shortcut formula you can use to solve each of these:
is %
   
of 100

95
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

is The number that usually follows (but can precede) the word is in the question. It is also the part.

of The number that usually follows the word of in the question. It is also the whole.

% The number in front of the % or word percent in the question.

Or, you may think of the shortcut formula as:

part %
   
100
whole

To solve each of the three main varieties of percent questions, use the fact that the cross products are equal.
The cross products are the products of the numbers diagonally across from each other. Remembering that prod-
uct means multiply, here’s how to create the cross products for the percent shortcut:
part %

whole 
100

part  100  whole  %

It’s also useful to know that when you have an equation like the one above—a number sentence that says that two
quantities are equal—you can do the same thing to both sides and they will still be equal. You can add, subtract, mul-
tiply, or divide both sides by the same number and still have equal numbers. You’ll see how this works below.

 Finding a Percent of a Whole

Plug the numbers you’re given into the percent shortcut to find the percent of a whole.

Example: What is 15% of 40?

is 15
15 is the % and 40 is the of number: 
40 
100
Cross multiply and solve for is: is  100  40  15
is  100  600
Thus, 6 is 15% of 40. 6  100  600
Note: If the answer didn’t leap out at you when you saw the equation, you could have divided both sides by 100,
leaving is = 6.

Example: Twenty percent of the 25 students in Mr. Mann’s class failed the test.
How many students failed the test?

The percent is 20 and the of number is 25 since it follows the

is 20
5  100
word of in the problem. Thus, the setup and solution are: 2 

is  100  25  20
is  100  500
5  100  500

96
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

Thus, 5 students failed the test. Again, if the answer doesn’t leap out at you, divide both sides of is  100 
500 by 100, leaving is  5.
Now you try finding the percent of a whole with the sample question on the next page. The step-by-step solu-
tion is at the end of this lesson.

Sample Question 1
Ninety percent of the 300 dentists surveyed recommended sugarless gum for their patients who chew
gum. How many dentists did NOT recommend sugarless gum?

 Finding What Percent One Number Is of Another Number

Use the percent shortcut and the fact that cross products are equal to find what percent one number is of another
number.

Example: 10 is what percent of 40?

10 %
10 is the is number and 40 is the of number: 
40  
100
Cross multiply and solve for %: 10  100  40  %
1,000  40  %
Thus, 10 is 25% of 40. 1,000  40  25
If you didn’t know offhand what to multiply by 40 to 1,000 ÷ 40  40  % ÷ 40
get 1,000, you could divide both sides of the equation by 40: 25  %

Example: Thirty-five members of the 105-member marching band are girls. What percent of the
marching band is girls?

35 %
5 

10
The of number is 105 ecause it follows the word of in the problem: 
100
Therefore, 35 is the is number because it is the other number in the 35  100  105  %
problem, and we know it’s not the percent because that’s what we have to find: 3,500  105  %
Divide both sides of the equation by 105 to find out what % is equal to: 3,500 ÷ 105  105  % ÷ 105
Thus, 3331% of the marching band is girls. 3313  %

Sample Question 2
The quality control step at the Light Bright Company has found that 2 out of every 1,000 light bulbs
tested are defective. Assuming that this batch is indicative of all the light bulbs they manufacture, what
percent of the manufactured light bulbs is defective?

97
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

 Finding the Whole When the Percent Is Given

Once again, you can use the percent shortcut to find out what the whole is when you’re given a percentage.

Example: 20 is 40% of what number?

20 40
20 is the is number and 40 is the %: 

of 100
Cross multiply and solve for the of number: 20  100  of  40
2,000  of  40
Thus, 20 is 40% of 50. 2,000  50  40
Note: You could instead divide both sides of the equation by 40 to leave 50 on one side and of on the other.

Example: John left a $3 tip, which was 15% of his bill. How much was his bill?

In this problem, $3 is the is number, even though there’s no is in the actual question. You know this for two rea-
sons: 1) It’s the part John left for his server, and 2) the word of appears later in the problem: of the bill, meaning
that the amount of the bill is the of number. And, obviously, 15 is the % since the problem states 15%.

3 15
So, here’s the setup and solution: 10
of 0
3  100  of  15
300  of  15
300  20  15
Thus, John’s bill was $20.
Note: Some problems may ask you a different question. For instance, what was the total amount that John’s lunch
cost? In that case, the answer is the amount of the bill plus the amount of the tip, or $23 ($20 + $3).

Sample Question 3
1
The combined city and state sales tax in Bay City is 82%. The Bay City Boutique collected $600 in
sales tax for sales on May 1. What was the total sales figure for that day, excluding sales tax?

98
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

 Which Is Bigger, the Part or the Whole ?

In most percent word problems, the part is smaller than the whole, as you would probably expect. But don’t let
the size of the numbers fool you: The part may be larger than the whole. In these cases, the percent will be greater
than 100%.

Example: 10 is what percent of 5?

1. The is number is 10 (the part), and the of number is 5 (the whole).

10 %
2. Set it up as: 
5 
100
Cross multiply and solve for %: 10  100  5  %
1,000  5  %
Thus, 10 is 200% of 5, which is exactly like saying that 10 is
twice as big as 5. 1,000  5  200

Example: Larry gave his taxi driver $9.20, which included a 15% tip. How much did the taxi ride cost,
excluding the tip?
1. The $9.20 that Larry gave his driver included the 15% tip plus the cost of the taxi ride itself, which
translates to:
$9.20 = the cost of the ride + 15% of the cost of the ride
Mathematically, the cost of the ride is the same as 100% of the cost of the ride, because 100% of any num-
ber (like 3.58295) is that number (3.58295).
Thus:
$9.20 = 100% of the cost of the ride + 15% of the cost of the ride, or
$9.20 = 115% of the cost of the ride (by addition)
9.20 115
2. $9.20 is 115% of the cost of the ride:    10
of 0
Cross multiply and solve for of: 9.20  100  115  of
920  115  of
920  115  8
You probably needed to divide both 920 and 11  of by 115 to solve this
one. That leaves you with 8 = of.
Thus, $9.20 is 115% of $8, which is the amount of the taxi ride itself.

99
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

Practice
Find the percent of the number.

1. 1% of 50 6. 25% of 44

2. 10% of 50 7. 15% of 600

3. 100% of 50 8. 110% of 80

4. 0.5% of 40 9. 100% of 92

5. 75% of 120 10. 250% of 20

What percent is one number of another?

11. 10 is what % of 40? 16. 15 is what % of 100?

12. 6 is what % of 12? 17. 1.2 is what % of 90?

13. 12 is what % of 6? 18. 25 is what % of 75?

14. 50 is what % of 50? 19. 66 is what % of 11?

15. 3 is what % of 120? 20. 1 is what % of 500?

Find the whole when a percent is given.

21. 100% of what number is 3? 26. 50% of what number is 45?

22. 10% of what number is 3? 27. 80% of what number is 100?

23. 1% of what number is 3? 28. 8712% of what number is 7?

24. 20% of what number is 100? 29. 150% of what number is 90?

25. 75% of what number is 12? 30. 300% of what number is 18?

100
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

Percent Word Problems

If you are unfamiliar with word problems or need brushing up on how to go about solving them, refer to Lessons
15 and 16 for extra help.

31. Last Monday, 25% of the 20-member 36. In Clearview, 40% of the houses are
cheerleading squad missed practice. white. If there are 200 houses in
How many cheerleaders missed prac- Clearview, how many are NOT white?
tice that day? a. 40
b. 80
32. In the Chamber of Commerce, 6623% c. 100
of the members are women and 200 of d. 120
the members are men. How many e. 160
Chamber of Commerce members are
there in all? 37. A certain car sells for $20,000, if it is
paid for in full (the cash price). How-
33. If there are 280 million people in the ever, the car can be financed with a 10%
United States, how many are in the down payment and monthly payments
top 5%? of $1,000 for 24 months. How much
more money is paid for the privilege of
34. When the local department store put financing, excluding tax? What percent
all its shirts on sale for 20% off, Jason is this of the car’s cash price?
saved a total of $30 by purchasing four a. $26,000, 30%
shirts. What was the total price of the b. $26,000, 10%
four shirts before the sale? c. $6,000, 25%
d. $6,000, 30%
35. The sales tax in Texas is 841%. What is the e. $4,000, 25%
price, with tax, of a cowboy hat in Hous-
ton marked at $140? 38. If 6 feet of a 30-foot pole are under-
a. $11.55 ground, what percent of the pole’s
b. $151.20 length is above the ground?
c. $151.55 a. 12%
d. $129.33 b. 20%
c. 40%
d. 60%
e. 80%

101
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

Skill Building until Next Time

Whenever you’re in a library, on a bus, in a large work area, or any place where there are more than five
people gathered together, count the total number of people and write down that number. Then count how
many men there are and figure out what percentage of the group is male and what percentage is female.
Think of other ways of dividing the group: What percentage is wearing blue jeans? What percentage has
black or dark brown hair? What percentage is reading?

Answers

Practice Problems
1. 0.5 or 12 11. 25% 21. 3 31. 5
2. 5 12. 50% 22. 30 32. 600
3. 50 13. 200% 23. 300 33. 14 million
4. 0.2 14. 100% 24. 500 34. $150
5. 90 15. 2.5% 25. 16 35. c.
6. 11 16. 15% 26. 90 36. d.
7. 90 17. 113 or 1.3% 27. 125 37. d.
8. 88 18. 3313% or 33.3% 28. 8 38. e.
9. 92 19. 600% 29. 60
10. 50 20. 0.2% or 15% 30. 6

Sample Question 1
There are two ways to solve this problem.

Method 1: Calculate the number of dentists who recommended sugarless gum using the oisf technique
and then subtract that number from the total number of dentists surveyed to get the number
of dentists who did NOT recommend sugarless gum.
is 90
1. The of number is 300, and the % is 90: 
300 
100
2. Cross multiply and solve for is: is  100  300  90

is  100  27,000

Thus, 270 dentists recommended sugarless gum. 270  100  27,000

3. Subtract the number of dentists who recommended sugarless gum

from the number of dentists surveyed to get the number of dentists
who did NOT recommend sugarless gum: 300  270  30

102
 – PERCENT WORD PROBLEMS –

Sample Question 1 (continued)

Method 2: Subtract the percent of dentists who recommended sugarless gum from 100% (reflecting
the percent of dentists surveyed) to get the percent of dentists who did NOT recommend
sugarless gum. Then use the oisf technique to calculate the number of dentists who did NOT
recommend sugarless gum.

1. Calculate the % of dentists who did NOT recommend

sugarless gum: 100%  90%  10%
is 10
2. The of number is 300, and the % is 10: 
300 
100
3. Cross multiply and solve for is: is  100  300  10

is  100  3,000

Thus, 30 dentists did NOT recommend sugarless gum. 30  100  3,000

Sample Question 2
2 %
1. 2 is the is number and 1,000 is the of number: 
1,000  
100

2. Cross multiply and solve for %: 2  100  1,000  %

200  1,000  %

Thus, 0.2% of the light bulbs are assumed to be defective. 200  1,000  0.2

Sample Question 3
1. Since this question includes neither the word is nor of, you have to put your thinking cap on to
determine whether 600 is the is number or the of number! Since $600 is equivalent to 812% tax, we
can conclude that it is the part. The question is asking this: “$600 tax is 812% of what dollar amount
of sales?”
812
Thus, 600 is the is number and 812 is the %: 600
  
of 100

2. Cross multiply and solve for the of number: 600  100  of  812

60,000  of  812

You have to divide both sides of the equation 60,000  812  of  812  812
by 812 to get the answer: 7,058.82  of

Thus, $600 is 812% of approximately $7,058.82 (rounded to the nearest cent),

the total sales on May 1, excluding sales tax.

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 L E S S O N

Another

11 Approach to
Percents
LESSON SUMMARY
The final percent lesson focuses on another approach to solving percent
problems, one that is more direct than the approach described in the pre-
vious lesson. It also gives some shortcuts for finding particular percents
and teaches how to calculate percent of change (the percent that a fig-
ure increases or decreases).

T here is a more direct approach to solving percent problems than the shortcut formula you learned
in the previous percent lesson:

is
of  
%

100

The direct approach is based on the concept of translating a word problem practically word-for-word from Eng-
lish statements into mathematical statements. The most important translation rules you’ll need are:

■ of means multiply ()

■ is means equals (=)

You can put this direct approach to work on the three main varieties of percent problems.

105
 – ANOTHER APPROACH TO PERCENTS –

 Finding a Percent of a Whole

Example: What is 15% of 50? (50 is the whole.)

Translation:
■ The word What is the unknown quantity; use the variable w to stand for it.
■ The word is means equals (=).
15
■ Mathematically, 15% is equivalent to both 0.15 and 
100 (your choice, depending on whether you prefer
to work in decimals or fractions).
■ of 50 means multiply by 50 ( 50).

Put it all together as an equation and solve it:

15 15 50
w  0.15  50 OR w
100  50  
100  1
w  7.5 w  125
15
Thus, 7.5 (which is the same as 2) is 15% of 50.
The sample questions in this lesson are the same as those in Lesson 10. Solve them again, this time using the
direct approach. Step-by-step solutions are at the end of the lesson.

Sample Question 1
Ninety percent of the 300 dentists surveyed recommended sugarless gum for their patients who chew
gum. How many dentists did NOT recommend sugarless gum?

 Finding What Percent One Number Is of Another Number

Example: 10 is what percent of 40?

Translation:
■ 10 is means 10 is equal to (10 ).
w
■ What percent is the unknown quantity, so let’s use   to stand for it. (The variable w is written as a
100
fraction over 100 because the word percent means per 100, or over 100.)
■ of 40 means multiply by 40 ( 40).

w
Put it all together as an equation and solve: 10     40
100
10 w 40
Write 10 and 40 as fractions: 
1    
100 1
10 w  40
Multiply fractions: 
1 
100 
1
10 w2
Reduce: 1 5

Cross multiply: 10  5  w  2
Solve by dividing both sides by 2: 25  w
Thus, 10 is 25% of 40.

106
 – ANOTHER APPROACH TO PERCENTS –

Sample Question 2
The quality-control step at the Light Bright Company has found that 2 out of every 1,000 light bulbs
tested are defective. Assuming that this batch is indicative of all the light bulbs they manufacture, what
percent of the manufactured light bulbs is defective?

 Finding the Whole When a Percent Is Given

Example: 20 is 40% of what number?

Translation:
■ 20 is means 20 is equal to (20 ).
40
■ Mathematically, 40% is equivalent to both 0.40 (which is the same as 0.4) and 
100 (which reduces
2
to 5). Again, it’s your choice, depending on which form you prefer.
■ of what number means multiply by the unknown quantity; let’s use w for it ( w).

Put it all together as an equation and solve:

20  0.4  w OR 20  25  w
20 2 w
1  5  1
20 2w
1  
5

20  0.4  w  0.4 20  5  2  w
100  2  w
50  w 100  2  50
Thus, 20 is 40% of 50.

Sample Question 3
1
The combined city and state sales tax in Bay City is 82%. The Bay City Boutique collected $600 in
sales tax on May 1. What was the total sale figure for that day, excluding sales tax?

Practice
For additional practice, use the more direct approach to solve some of the practice questions in Lesson 10. You
can then decide which approach is the best for you.

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 – ANOTHER APPROACH TO PERCENTS –

 The 15% Tip Shortcut

Have you ever been in the position of getting your bill in a restaurant and not being able to quickly calculate an
appropriate tip (without using a calculator or giving the bill to a friend)? If that’s you, read on.
It’s actually faster to calculate two figures—10% of the bill and 5% of the bill—and then add them together.

1. Calculate 10% of the bill by moving the decimal point one digit to the left.
Examples:
■ 10% of $35.00 is $3.50.

■ 10% of $82.50 is $8.25.

■ 10% of $59.23 is $5.923, which rounds to $5.92.

Pretty easy, isn’t it?

2. Calculate 5% by taking half of the amount you calculated in step 1.

Examples:
■ 5% of $35.00 is half of $3.50, which is $1.75.

■ 5% of $82.50 is half of $8.25, which is $4.125, which rounds to $4.13.

■ 5% of $59.23 is approximately half of $5.92, which is $2.96. (We said approximately because we rounded

$5.923 down to $5.92. We’re going to be off by a fraction of a cent, but that really doesn’t matter—you’re
probably going to round the tip to a more convenient amount, like the nearest nickel or quarter.)

3. Calculate 15% by adding together the results of step 1 and step 2.

Examples:
■ 15% of $35.00  $3.50  $1.75  $5.25

■ 15% of $82.50  $8.25  $4.13  $12.38

■ 15% of $59.23  $5.92  $2.96  $8.88

You might want round each calculation up to a more convenient amount of money to leave, such as $5.50,
$12.50, and $9 if your server was good; or round down if your service wasn’t terrific.

Sample Question 4
If your server was especially good or you ate at an expensive restaurant, you might want to leave a 20%
tip. Can you figure out how to quickly calculate it?

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Practice
Use the shortcut to calculate a 15% tip and a 20% tip for each bill, rounding to the nearest nickel.

1. $20 4. $48.64

2. $25 5. $87.69

3. $32.50 6. $234.56

 Percent of Change (% Increase and % Decrease)

You can use the oisf technique to find the percent of change, whether it’s an increase or a decrease. The is number
is the amount of the increase or decrease, and the of number is the original amount.

Example: If a merchant puts his $10 pens on sale for $8, by what percent does he decrease the selling price?

1. Calculate the decrease, the is number: $10  $8  $2

2. The of number is the original amount: $10
3. Set up the oisf formula and solve for the % by cross multiplying: 2 %
  
10 100
2  100  10  %
200  10  %
200  10  20
Thus, the selling price is decreased by 20%.

If the merchant later raises the price of the pens from $8 back to $10, don’t
be fooled into thinking that the percent increase is also 20%! It’s actually
more, because the increase amount of $2 is now based on a lower original
2 %
price of only $8 (since he’s now starting from $8): 
8 
100
2  100  8  %
200  8  %
200  8  25
Thus, the selling price is increased by 25%.

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Alternatively, you can use a more direct approach to finding the percent of change by setting up the following
formula:
amount of change
% of change   original amount  100


Here’s the solution to the previous questions using this more direct approach:

Price decrease from $10 to $8:

1. Calculate the decrease: $10  $8  $2
2. Divide it by the original amount, $10, and multiply by 100 to change
2
the fraction to a percent: 10  100
100
 120  1  20%
Thus, the selling price is decreased by 20%.

Price increase from $8 back to $10:

1. Calculate the increase: $10  $8  $2
2. Divide it by the original amount, $8, and multiply by 100 to change the
2
fraction to a percent: 8  100  28  
100
1  25%
Thus, the selling price is increased by 25%.

Practice
Find the percent of change. If the percentage doesn’t come out evenly, round to the nearest tenth of a percent.

7. From $5 to $10 12. A population decrease from 8.2 million

people to 7.4 million people.
8. From $10 to $5
13. From 15 miles per gallon to 27 miles
9. From $40 to $50 per gallon.

10. From $50 to $40 14. From a police force of 120 officers to
150 officers.
11. From $25 to $35.50

Percent Word Problems

Use the direct approach to solve these word problems. If you are unfamiliar with word problems or just need brush-
ing up on how to solve them, consult Lessons 15 and 16 for extra help.

15. A $180 suit is discounted 15%. What is the sale price?

a. $27
b. $153
c. $165
d. $175
e. $207

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16. Ron started the day with $150 in his wallet. He spent 9% of it to buy breakfast, 21% to buy lunch,
and 30% to buy dinner. If he didn’t spend any other money that day, how much money did he
have left at the end of the day?
a. $100
b. $90
c. $75
d. $60
e. $40

17. Jacob invested $20,000 in a new company that paid 10% interest per year on his investment. He
did not withdraw the first year’s interest, but allowed it to accumulate with his investment. How-
ever, after the second year, Jacob withdrew all his money (original investment plus accumulated
interest). How much money did he withdraw in total?
a. $24,200
b. $24,000
c. $22,220
d. $22,200
e. $22,000

18. If Sue sleeps 6 hours every night, what percentage of her day is spent sleeping?
a. 6%
b. 20%
c. 25%
d. 40%
e. 60%

19. Linda purchased $500 worth of stocks on Monday. On Thursday, she sold her stocks for $600.
What percent does her profit represent of her original investment, excluding commissions?
(Hint: profit  selling price  purchase price)
a. 100%
b. 20%
c. 1623%
d. 831%
e. 51%

20. The Compuchip Corporation laid off 20% of its 5,000 employees last month. How many
employees were NOT laid off?
a. 4,900
b. 4,000
c. 3,000
d. 1,000
e. 100

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21. A certain credit card company charges 121% interest per month on the unpaid balance. If Joni has
an unpaid balance of $300, how much interest will she be charged for one month?
a. 45¢
b. $3
c. $4.50
d. $30
e. $45

22. A certain credit card company charges 121% interest per month on the unpaid balance. If Joni has
an unpaid balance of $300 and doesn’t pay her bill for two months, how much interest will she be
charged for the second month?
a. $4.50
b. $4.57
c. $6
d. $9
e. $9.07

Skill Building until Next Time

The next time you eat in a restaurant, figure out how much of a tip to leave your server without using a
calculator. In fact, figure out how much 15% of the bill is and how much 20% of the bill is, so you can decide
how much tip to leave. Perhaps your server was a little better than average, so you want to leave a tip
slightly higher than 15%, but not as much as 20%. If that’s the case, figure out how much money you
should leave as a tip. Do you remember the shortcut for figuring tips from this lesson?

 Answers
Practice Problems

1. $3, $4 7. 100% increase 13. 80% increase 19. b.

2. $3.75, $5 8. 50% decrease 14. 25% increase 20. b.
3. $4.90, $6.50 9. 25% increase 15. b. 21. c.
4. $7.30, $9.75 10. 20% decrease 16. d. 22. b.
5. $13.15, $17.55 11. 42% increase 17. a.
6. $35.20, $46.90 12. 9.8% decrease 18. c.

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Sample Question 1
Translate:
9
■ 90% is equivalent to both 0.9 and 
10
■ of the 300 dentists means  300

■ How many dentists is the unknown quantity: We’ll use d for it.

But, wait! Ninety percent of the dentists DID recommend sugarless gum, but we’re asked to find
the number of dentists who did NOT recommend it. So there will be an extra step along the way. You
could find out how many dentists did recommend sugarless gum and then subtract from the total num-
ber of dentists to find out how many did not. But there’s an easier way:
Subtract 90% (the percent of dentists who DID recommend sugarless gum) from 100% (the per-
cent of dentists surveyed) to get 10% (the percent of dentists who did NOT recommend sugarless gum).
There’s one more translation before you can continue: 10% is equivalent to both 0.10 (which is the
10 1
same as 0.1) and   
100 (which reduces to 10 ).
1 300
0.1  300  d OR   
10 1 d
30
30  d 
1 d
Thus, 30 dentists did NOT recommend sugarless gum.

Sample Question 2
Although you have learned that of means multiply, there is an exception to the rule. The words out of
2
mean divide; specifically, 2 out of 1,000 light bulbs means  
1,000 of the light bulbs are defective. We can
2
equate () the fraction of the defective light bulbs ( 
1,000 ) to the unknown percent that is defective,
d
or 
100 . (Remember, a percent is a number divided by 100.) The resulting equation and its solution are
shown below.

2 d
Translate: 
1,000  
10 0
Cross multiply: 2  100  1,000  d
200  1,000  d
Solve for d: 200  1,000  0.2
Thus, 0.2% of the light bulbs are assumed to be defective.

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Sample Question 3
Translate:
1 812
■ Tax = 8%, which is equivalent to both  and 0.085
2 100
■ Tax = $600

■ Sales is the unknown amount; we’ll use S to represent it.

1
■ Tax = 8% of sales ( S)
2

Fraction approach:
812
Translate: 600  
100 S

600 812 S
Rewrite 600 and S as fractions: 
1  
100  1

812  S
Multiply fractions: 600

1   100

1
Cross multiply: 600  100  1  82  S
1 1
Solve for S by dividing both sides of the equation by 82: 60,000  82  S
1 1 1
60,000 ÷ 82  82  S ÷ 82
7,058.82 ≈ S
Decimal approach:
Translate and solve for S by dividing by 0.085: 600  0.085  S
600 ÷ 0.085  0.085  S ÷ 0.085
Rounded to the nearest cent and excluding tax, 7,058.82 ≈ S
$7,058.82 is the amount of sales on May 1.

Sample Question 4
To quickly calculate a 20% tip, find 10% by moving the decimal point one digit to the left, and then dou-
ble that number.

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15 Dealing with
Word Problems

LESSON SUMMARY
Word problems abound both on math tests and in everyday life. This
lesson will show you some straightforward approaches to making word
problems easier. The practice problems in this lesson incorporate the
various kinds of math you have already studied in this book.

A word problem tells a story. It may also present a situation in terms of numbers or unknowns or
both. (An unknown, also called a variable, is a letter of the alphabet that is used to represent an
unknown number.) Typically, the last sentence of the word problem asks you to answer a question.
Here’s an example:
Last week, Jason earned $57, and Karen earned $82. How much more money did Karen earn than Jason?
Word problems involve all the concepts covered in this book:

■ Arithmetic (whole numbers, fractions, decimals)

■ Percents
■ Ratios and proportions
■ Averages
■ Probability and counting

Doing all the problems in these two chapters is a good way to review what you have learned in the pre-
vious lessons.

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 Steps to Solving a Word Problem

While some simple word problems can be solved by common sense or intuition, most require a multistep
approach as follows:

1. Read a word problem in chunks rather than straight through from beginning to end. As you read each
chunk, stop to think about what it means. Make notes, write an equation, label an accompanying diagram,
or draw a picture to represent that chunk. You may even want to underline important information in a
chunk. Repeat the process with each chunk. Reading a word problem in chunks rather than straight
through prevents the problem from becoming overwhelming, and you won’t have to read it again to
answer it.
2. When you get to the actual question, circle it. This will keep you more focused as you solve
the problem.
3. If it’s a multiple-choice question, glance at the answer choices for clues. If they’re fractions, you probably
should do your work in fractions; if they’re decimals, you should probably work in decimals; and so on.
4. Make a plan of attack to help you solve the problem. That is, figure out what information you already have
and how you’re going to use it to develop a solution.
5. When you get your answer, reread the circled question to make sure you’ve answered it. This helps you
avoid the careless mistake of answering the wrong question. Test writers love to set traps: Multiple-choice
questions often include answers that reflect the most common mistakes test takers make.
6. Check your work after you get an answer. In a multiple-choice test, test takers get a false sense of security
when they get an answer that matches one of the given answers. But even if you’re not taking a multiple-
choice test, you should always check your work if you have time. Here are a few suggestions:
■ Ask yourself if your answer is reasonable, if it makes sense.

■ Plug your answer back into the problem to make sure the problem holds together.

■ Do the question a second time, but use a different method.

If a multiple-choice question stumps you, try one of the backdoor approaches, working backward or nice numbers,
explained in the next lesson.

 Translating Word Problems

The hardest part of any word problem is translating from English into math. When you read a problem, you can
frequently translate it word for word from English statements into mathematical statements. At other times, how-
ever, a key word in the word problem hints at the mathematical operation to be performed. The translation rules
are shown on the next page.

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 – DEALING WITH WORD PROBLEMS –

EQUALS key words: is, are, has

English Math
Bob is 18 years old. B  18
There are 7 hats. h7
Judi has 5 books. J5

ADD key words: sum; more, greater, or older than; total; altogether
English Math
The sum of two numbers is 10. x  y  10
Karen has $5 more than Sam. K5S
The base is 3'' greater than the height. b3h
Judi is 2 years older than Tony. J2T
Al threw the ball 8 feet further than Mark. A8M
The total of three numbers is 25. a  b  c  25
How much do Joan and Tom have altogether? JT?

SUBTRACT key words: difference; fewer, less, or younger than; remain; left over
English Math
The difference between two numbers is 17. x – y  17
Jay is 2 years younger than Brett. J  B – 2 (NOT 2 – B)
After Carol ate 3 apples, r apples remained. ra–3
Mike has 5 fewer cats than twice the number Jan has. M  2J – 5

MULTIPLY key words: of, product, times

English Math
25% of Matthew’s baseball caps 0.25  m, or 0.25m
1 1
Half of the boys 2  b, or 2b
The product of two numbers is 12. a  b  12, or ab  12
Notice that it isn’t necessary to write the times symbol () when multiplying by an unknown.

DIVIDE key word: per

English Math
15 blips
15 blips per 2 bloops 
2 bloops
60 miles
60 miles per hour 
1 hour
22 miles
22 miles per gallon 
1 gallon

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 – DEALING WITH WORD PROBLEMS –

DISTANCE FORMULA: DISTANCE = RATE  

Look for words like plane, train, boat, car, walk, run, climb, swim, travel, move
How far did the plane travel in 4 hours if it averaged 300 miles per hour?
d  300  4
d  1,200 miles
Ben walked 20 miles in 4 hours. What was his average speed?
20  r  4
5 miles per hour  r

Using the Translation Rules

Here’s an example of how to solve a word problem using the translation table.

Example: Carlos ate 13 of the jelly beans. Maria then ate 34 of the remaining jelly beans, which left 10 jelly
beans. How many jelly beans were there to begin with?
a. 60
b. 80
c. 90
d. 120
e. 140

Here’s how we marked up the question and took notes as we read it. Notice how we used abbreviations to
cut down on the amount of writing. Instead of writing the names of the people who ate jelly beans, we used only
the first letter of each name; we wrote the letter j instead of the longer word, jelly bean.

Example: Carlos ate 13 of the jelly beans. Maria then ate 34 of the remaining jelly beans, which left 10 jelly
beans. How many jelly beans were there to begin with?

C  13j
M  34 remaining
10 left

The following straightforward approach assumes a knowledge of fractions and elementary algebra. With
the previous lessons under your belt, you should have no problem using this method. However, the same prob-
lem is presented in the next lesson, but it is solved by a backdoor approach, working backward, which does not
involve algebra.

What we know:
■ Carlos and Maria each ate jelly beans.

Carlos ate 13 of them, which left some for Maria.

Maria then ate 34 of the jelly beans that Carlos left.
■ Afterward, there were 10 jelly beans.

The question itself: How many jelly beans were there to begin with?
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 – DEALING WITH WORD PROBLEMS –

Plan of attack:
■ Find out how many jelly beans Carlos and Maria each ate.

■ Add 10, the number of jelly beans that were finally left, to get the number of jelly beans they

started with.

Solution: Let’s assume there were j jelly beans when Carlos started eating them. Carlos ate 13 of them, or 13j
jelly beans (of means multiply). Since Maria ate a fraction of the remaining jelly beans, we must
subtract to find out how many Carlos left for her: j – 31j  32j. Maria then ate 43 of the 32j jelly beans
Carlos left her, or 43  32j jelly beans, which is 21j. Altogether, Carlos and Maria ate 31j  21j jelly beans,
or 56j jelly beans. Add the number of jelly beans they both ate (65 j) to the 10 leftover jelly beans to
get the number of jelly beans they started with, and solve the equation:
5
6 j  10  j
10  j – 56j
10  16j
60  j

Thus, there were 60 jelly beans to begin with.

Check: We can most easily do this by plugging 60 back into the original problem and seeing if the whole thing
makes sense.

Carlos ate 13 of 60 jelly beans. Maria then ate 34 of the remaining jelly beans, which left 10 jelly beans. How many
jelly beans were there to begin with?

Carlos ate 13 of 60 jelly beans, or 20 jelly beans (13  60  20). That left 40 jelly beans for Maria (60 – 20  40).
She then ate 34 of them, or 30 jelly beans (34  40  30). That left 10 jelly beans (40 – 30  10), which agrees with
the problem.

Try this sample question, and then check your answer against the step-by-step solution at the end of this lesson.

Sample Question 1
Four years ago, the sum of the ages of four friends was 42 years. If their ages were consecutive num-
bers, what is the current age of the oldest friend?

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 – DEALING WITH WORD PROBLEMS –

Practice Word Problems

These problems will incorporate all the kinds of math covered so far in this book. If you can’t answer all the ques-
tions, don’t worry. Just make a note of which areas you still need to work on and go back to the appropriate les-
sons for review.

Whole Numbers

1. Mark invited ten friends to a party. Each friend brought three guests. How many people came to
the party, including Mark?

2. Carolyn is making 20 Easter baskets for a children’s party. To avoid fights, she will put exactly 15
jelly beans into each basket. If jelly beans come in bags of 100, how many bags will she need?

Fractions

3. If 13 of a number is 25, then what is 15 of that same number?

4. At a three-day hat sale, 15 of the hats were sold the first day, 14 of the hats were sold the second day,
and 12 the hats were sold on the third day. What fraction of the hats was NOT sold during the
three days?

5. Ed wants to make pancakes, but his recipe calls for 134 cups of flour and he only has 112 cups.
What fraction of a batch is he able to make?

Decimals

6. Joan went shopping with $100.00 and returned home with only $18.42. How much money did
she spend?

7. In the 2004 World Series, Manny Ramirez was at bat 17 times and got a hit 7 times. What was his bat-
ting average (rate of hits per at bat) for the series? (Round your answer to the nearest thousandth.)

8. An African elephant eats about 4.16 tons of hay each month. At this rate, how many tons of hay
will three African elephants eat in one year?

Percents

9. The cost for making a telephone call from Vero Beach to Miami is 37¢ for the first 3 minutes and
9¢ per each additional minute. There is a 10% discount for calls placed after 10 P.M. What is the
cost of a 10-minute telephone call placed at 11 P.M.?

10. Irene left a $2.40 tip for dinner, which was 15% of her bill. How much was her dinner, excluding
the tip?

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 – DEALING WITH WORD PROBLEMS –

Ratios and Proportions

11. To make lemonade, the ratio of lemon juice to water is 3 to 8. How many ounces of lemon juice
are needed to blend with 36 ounces of water?

12. There are 2.2 pounds in one kilogram. How many kilograms are in 11 pounds?

13. To make the movie King Kong, an 18-inch model of the ape was used. On screen, King Kong
appeared to be 50 feet tall. If the building he climbed appeared to be 800 feet tall on screen, how
big was the model building in inches?

Averages

14. What is the average of 34, 34, and 12?

15. The following table shows the selling price of Brand X pens during a five-year period. What was
the average selling price of a Brand X pen during this time?
YEAR 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

PRICE $1.95 $2.00 $1.95 $2.05 $2.05

Probability and Counting

16. Anthony draws four cards from a deck and gets a 7, 8, 9, and a 10. What is the probability that the
card on top of the deck of the remaining 48 cards is a 6 or a queen?

Distance

17. The hare and the turtle were in a race. The hare was so sure of victory that he started a 24-hour
nap just as the turtle got started. The poor, slow turtle crawled along at a speed of 20 feet per
hour. How far had he gotten when the overly confident hare woke up? The length of the race
course was 530 feet, and the hare hopped along at a speed of 180 feet per hour. (Normally, he was
a lot faster, but he sprained his lucky foot as he started the race and could only hop on one foot.)
Could the hare overtake the turtle and win the race? If not, how long would the course have to be
for the race to end in a tie?

Skill Building until Next Time

The next time you walk into a clothing or department store, bring a notepad and look around for a dis-
count sign of a percentage taken off the regular price of a product. First, write down the full price of the
item. Then, create a word problem that asks what dollar amount you’d save if you bought the item with
that percentage discount. After you create the word problem, try your hand at solving it.

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 Answers

Practice Problems
1. 41 6. $81.58 11. 1312 16. 16
2. 3 7. 0.412 12. 5 17. 480 feet, no,
3. 15 8. 149.76 13. 288 540 feet
4. 210 9. 90¢ 14. 23
5. 67 10. $16 15. $2

Sample Question 1
Here’s how to mark up the problem:
Four years ago, the sum of the ages of four friends was 42 years. If their ages were consecutive num-
bers, what is the current age of the oldest friend?

What we know:
■ Four friends are involved.
■ Four years ago, the sum (which means add) of their ages was 42.
■ Their ages are consecutive (that means numbers in sequence, like 4, 5, 6, etc.).

The question itself:

How old is the oldest friend NOW?

Plan of attack:
Use algebra or trial and error to find out how old the friends were four years ago. After finding their
ages, add them up to make sure they total 42. Then add 4 to the oldest to find his current age.

Solution:
Let the consecutive ages of the four friends four years ago be represented by: f, f  1, f  2, and f  3.
Since their sum was 42 years, write and solve an equation to add their ages:
f  f  1  f  2  f  3  42
4f  6  42
4f  36
f9
Since f represents the age of the youngest friend four years ago, the youngest friend is currently 13
years old (9  4  13). Since she is 13, the ages of the four friends are currently 13, 14, 15, and 16. Thus,
the oldest friend is currently 16.

Check:
Add up the friends’ ages of four years ago to make sure the total is 42: 9  10  11  12  42. Check
the rest of your arithmetic to make sure it’s correct.

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Backdoor

16 Approaches to
Word Problems
LESSON SUMMARY
This lesson introduces some “backdoor” techniques you may be able
to use for word problems that appear too difficult to solve by a straight-
forward approach.

M any word problems are actually easier to solve by backdoor—indirect—approaches. These

approaches work especially well on multiple-choice tests, but they can sometimes be used to
answer word problems that are not presented in that format.

 Nice Numbers

Nice numbers are useful when there are unknowns in the text of the word problem (for example, g gallons of paint)
that make the problem too abstract for you. By substituting nice numbers into the problem, you can turn an abstract
problem into a concrete one. (See practice problems 1 and 8.)

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 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

Here’s how to use the nice-numbers technique.

1. When the text of a word problem contains unknown quantities, plug in nice numbers for the unknowns. A
nice number is one that is easy to calculate with and makes sense in the context of the problem.
2. Read the problem with the nice numbers in place. Then, solve the question it asks.
3. If the answer choices are all numbers, the choice that matches your answer is the right one.
4. If the answer choices contain unknowns, substitute the same nice numbers into all the answer choices. The
choice that matches your answer is the right one. If more than one answer matches, it’s a “do-over” with
different nice numbers. You only have to check the answer choices that have already matched.

Here’s how to use the technique on a word problem.

Example: Judi went shopping with p dollars in her pocket. If the price of shirts was s shirts for d dollars,
what is the maximum number of shirts Judi could buy with the money in her pocket?
a. psd
b. pds
c. psd
ds
d. 
p

Solution:
Try these nice numbers:
p  $100
s2
d  $25
Substitute these numbers for the unknowns in the problem and in all the answer choices. Then reread the new
problem and solve the question using your reasoning skills:

Judi went shopping with $100 in her pocket. If the price of shirts was 2 shirts for $25, what is the maxi-
mum number of shirts Judi could buy with the money in her pocket?
a. 100  2  25  5,000
100  2
b.  8
25
100  25
c.  1,250
2
25  2 1
d.   
100 2

Since 2 shirts cost $25, that means that 4 shirts cost $50, and 8 shirts cost $100. Thus, the answer to our new question
is 8. Answer b is the correct answer to the original question because it is the only one that matches our answer of 8.

Use nice numbers to solve sample question 1. Step-by-step solutions to sample questions are at the end of
the lesson.

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 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

Sample Question 1
If a dozen pencils cost p cents and a dozen erasers cost e cents, what is the cost, in cents, of 4 pencils
and 3 erasers?
a. 4p  3e

b. 3p  4e
4p 3e
c. 
12
3p 4e
d. 
12

 Working Backward

Working backward is a relatively quick way to substitute numeric answer choices back into the problem to see which
one fits all the facts stated in the problem. The process is much faster than you think because you’ll probably only
have to substitute one or two answers to find the right one. (See practice problems 4, 14, and 15.)

This approach works only when:

■ All of the answer choices are numbers.

■ You’re asked to find a simple number, not a sum, product, difference, or ratio.

Here’s what to do:

1. Look at all the answer choices and begin with the one in the middle of the range. For example, if the
answers are 14, 8, 2, 20, and 25, begin by plugging 14 into the problem.
2. If your choice doesn’t work, eliminate it. Take a few seconds to try to determine if you need a bigger or
smaller answer. Eliminate the answer choices you know won’t work because they’re too big or too small.
3. Plug in one of the remaining choices.
4. If none of the answers works, you may have made a careless error. Begin again or look for your mistake.

Here’s how to solve the jelly bean problem from Lesson 15 by working backward:

Example: Carlos ate 31 of the jelly beans. Maria then ate 43 of the remaining jelly beans, which left 10 jelly beans.
How many jelly beans were there to begin with?
a. 60
b. 80
c. 90
d. 120
e. 140

153
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

Solution:
Start with the middle number: Assume there were 90 jelly beans to begin with.

Since Carlos ate 1 of the jelly beans, that means he ate 30 (13  90  30), leaving 60 jelly beans for Maria
3
(90 – 30  60). Maria then ate 34 of the 60 jelly beans, or 45 of them (34  60  45). That leaves 15 jelly
beans (60 – 45  15).

The problem states that there were 10 jelly beans left, and we wound up with 15 of them. That indicates that
we started with too big a number. Thus, 120 and 140 are also wrong because they’re too big! With only two choices
left, let’s use common sense to decide which one to try first. The next smaller answer is 80, but it’s only a little smaller
than 90 and may not be small enough. So, let’s try 60:

Since Carlos ate 31 of the jelly beans, that means he ate 20 (1  60  20), leaving 40 jelly beans for Maria
3
(60 – 20  40). Maria then ate 34 of the 40 jelly beans, or 30 of them (34  40  30). That leaves 10 jelly
beans (40 – 30  10).

Our result (10 jelly beans left) agrees with the problem. The right answer is a.

Sample Question 2
Remember the age problem in the last lesson? Here it is again. Solve it by working backward.
Four years ago, the sum of the ages of four friends was 42 years. If their ages were consecutive num-
bers, what is the current age of the oldest friend?
a. 12
b. 13
c. 14
d. 15
e. 16

Approximation
If the numbers in a word problem are too cumbersome for you to handle, approximate them with numbers that
are relatively close and easier to work with; then look for the answer that comes closest to yours. Of course, if there
is more than one answer that’s close to yours, you’ll either have to approximate the numbers more closely or use
the numbers given in the problem. Use this method in any problem that uses the word approximately. (See prac-
tice problems 6 and 7 on page 156.)

Process of Elimination
If you truly don’t know how to solve a multiple-choice question and none of the other techniques works for you,
you may be able to make an “educated guess.” Examine each answer choice and ask yourself if it’s reasonable. It’s
not uncommon to be able to eliminate some of the answer choices because they seem too big or too small. (See
practice problems 2, 9, and 18 on the following pages.)

154
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

Practice Word Problems

If you have difficulty with the following problems, you’ll know which lessons in the rest of this book you need to
review.

Whole Numbers

1. Suppose p people are invited to a party and each person will bring two guests. If it costs c dollars
to feed each person, how much will the food for all these people cost?
a. c(p + 2)
b. 2pc
c. 3pc
2p
d. 
c
3p
e. 
c

2. Eight years ago, Heather was twice as old as her brother David. Today, she is 13 years older than
him. How old is she?
a. 16
b. 21
c. 33
d. 34
e. 35

Fractions

3. Of Maria’s total salary, 15 goes to taxes and 23 of what remains goes to food, rent, and bills. If she is
left with $300 each month, what is her total monthly salary?
a. $562.50
b. $900
c. $1,000
d. $1,125
e. $4,500

4. The weight of a bag of bricks plus 14 of its weight is 25 pounds. How much does the bag of bricks
weigh, in pounds?
a. 5
b. 8
c. 16
d. 18
e. 20

155
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

a
5. If b is a fraction whose value is greater than 1, which of the following is a fraction whose value is
always less than 1?
a a
a. (b)  (b)
a
b. 
3b
b
c. 
a
a
d. 3b
ab
e. 
b

Decimals

6. What is the product of 3.12 and 34.95?

a. 10.9044
b. 109.044
c. 1090.44
d. 10904.4
e. 109044

7. At a price of $0.82 per pound, what is the approximate cost of a turkey weighing 914 pounds?
a. $7.00
b. $7.20
c. $7.60
d. $8.25
e. $9.25

8. PakMan ships packages for a base price of b dollars plus an added charge based on weight: c cents per
pound or part thereof. What is the cost, in dollars, for shipping a package that weighs p pounds?
pc
a. b   
100
bc
b. p   
100
c. b  100pc
bpc
d.  
100
e. p  100bc

Percents

9. Of the 30 officers on traffic duty, 20% didn’t work on Friday. How many officers worked on
Friday?
a. 6
b. 10
c. 12
d. 14
e. 24

156
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

10. After running 121 miles on Wednesday, a runner had covered 75% of her planned route. How
many miles did she plan to run that day?
a. 2
b. 241
c. 221
d. 234
e. 3

Ratios and Proportions

11. Mr. Emory makes his special blend of coffee by mixing espresso beans with Colombian beans in
the ratio of 4 to 5. How many pounds of espresso beans does he need to make 18 pounds of his
special blend?
a. 4
b. 5
c. 8
d. 9
e. 10

12. A recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar and 8 cups of flour. If only 6 cups of flour are used, how many
cups of sugar should be used?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 241
d. 4
e. 16

Averages

13. The average of eight different numbers is 5. If 1 is added to the largest number, what is the result-
ing average of the eight numbers?
a. 5.1
b. 5.125
c. 5.25
d. 5.5
e. 610

157
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

14. Lieutenant James made an average of 3 arrests per week for 4 weeks. How many arrests does she
need to make in the fifth week to raise her average to 4 arrests per week?
a. 4
b. 5
c. 6
d. 7
e. 8

15. The average of five numbers is 40. If two of the numbers are 60 and 50, what is the average of the
other three numbers?
a. 30
b. 40
c. 45
d. 50
e. 90

Probability

16. What is the probability of drawing a king from a regular deck of 52 playing cards?
4
a. 13
3
b. 
26
1
c. 
26
1
d. 
52
1
e. 
13

17. What is the probability of rolling a total of 7 on a single throw of two fair dice?
a. 1 in 12
b. 1 in 6
c. 1 in 4
d. 1 in 3
e. 1 in 2

Distance

18. On a 900-mile trip between Palm Beach and Washington, a plane averaged 450 miles per hour.
On the return trip, the plane averaged 300 miles per hour. What was the average rate of speed for
the round trip, in miles per hour?
a. 300
b. 330
c. 360
d. 375
e. 450
158
 – BACKDOOR APPROACHES TO WORD PROBLEMS –

Skill Building until Next Time

Go back over the practice problems in the previous chapters and see how many tough questions can be
answered by a “backdoor” approach. You may be surprised by the number of questions that can be solved
by plugging in an answer to see if it works.

 Answers

Practice Problems
1. c. 6. b. 11. c. 16. e.
2. d. 7. c. 12. c. 17. b.
3. d. 8. a. 13. b. 18. c.
4. e. 9. e. 14. e.
5. c. 10. a. 15. a.

Sample Question 1
Suppose you substituted p  12 and e  24. Here’s what would have happened:
If a dozen pencils cost 12 cents and a dozen erasers cost 24 cents, what is the cost, in cents, of 4 pen-
cils and 3 erasers?
a. 4  12  3  24  120 b. 3  12  4  24  132
4  12  3  24 4  24  3  12
c. 1 2  1
2  10
120
d.      11
12
123
12
Since a dozen pencils cost 12¢, 1 pencil costs 1¢ and 4 pencils cost 4¢. Since a dozen erasers cost 24¢,
1 eraser costs 2¢ and 3 erasers cost 6¢. Therefore, the total cost of 4 pencils and 3 erasers is 10¢. Since
4p  3e
only answer choice c matches, the correct answer is  12 .


Sample Question 2
Begin with answer choice c. If the current age of the oldest friend is 14, that means the four friends are
currently 11, 12, 13, and 14 years old. Four years ago, their ages would have been 7, 8, 9, and 10.
Because the sum of those ages is only 34 years, answer choice c is too small. Thus, answer choices a
and b are also too small.
Suppose you tried answer choice d next. If the current age of the oldest friend is 15, that means
the four friends are currently 12, 13, 14, and 15 years old. Four years ago, their ages would have been 8,
9, 10, and 11. Because the sum of those ages is only 38 years, answer choice d is also too small. That
leaves only answer choice e.
Even though e is the only choice left, try it anyway, just to make certain it works. If the oldest friend
is currently 16 years old, then the four friends are currently 13, 14, 15, and 16. Four years ago, their ages
would have been 9, 10, 11, and 12. Since their sum is 42, answer choice e is correct.
Did you notice that answer choice a is a “trick” answer? It’s the age of the oldest friend four years
ago. Beware! Test writers love to include “trick” answers.

159
 Chapter # 6 Algebra
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO ALGEBRA
Algebra uses symbols and letters of the alphabet to replace numbers. Algebra is based on the
concept of unknown values called variables, unlike arithmetic which is based entirely on
known number values.
Notations in Algebra:
The signs +,-, ×, ÷, = are used in algebra. In algebra, we can omit the sign of multiplication i.e.
a×b= c can be written as ab=c
Any alphabet use in an expression is known as Variable. The constant factor used with variable
is called the Coefficient while the numeral that remains unchanged is Constant. In algebra,
terms of same kind are called like terms and can be combined into single term. The process of
replacing letters by numbers in algebraic equation is called Substitution.

Differentiation between an expression and an equation

In mathematics, you might have encountered the terms expression and equation very often. As
both combines number and/or variables, people often misunderstood an expression for an
equation. However, these two mathematical terms are not same, and a big difference lies in
their arrangement, that explains what they represent. The best way, to identify, whether a given
problem is an expression or equation is that if it contains an equal to sign (=) it is an equation.
However, if it does not contain an equal to (=) sign, then it is just an expression.
Relating expressions and an equation

Evaluating Algebraic Expressions

To evaluate an algebraic expression, you have to substitute a number for each variable and
perform the arithmetic operations. In the example above, the variable x is equal to 6 since 6 +
6 = 12.

Example 2.1 A: Calculate the following expression for x = 3 and z =2

6z + 4x=?

Solution: Replace x with 3 and z with 2 to evaluate the expression.

6z + 4x =?
6⋅2 + 4⋅3 =?
12 + 12 = 24
Example 2.1 B: Evaluate the expression 3y + 2y when y = 5.
Solution: first add the like terms and replace y with 5.
3y + 2y =?
5y =?
5(5) =?
25
2.2 FACTORIZATION
Factors
Numbers have factors:

It is like "splitting" an expression into a multiplication of simpler expressions.

Example 2.2 A: Factorize 2y + 6
Solution:
● 2y is 2 × y
● 6 is 2 × 3
So we can factor the whole expression into:
2y + 6 = 2(y + 3)
Example 2.2 B: Factorize 3y2 + 12y
Solution:
Firstly, 3 and 12 have a common factor of 3.
So we could have:
3y2 + 12y = 3y(y + 4)
2.3 Simplifying algebraic expressions
By “simplifying” an algebraic expression, we mean writing it in the most compact or efficient
manner, without changing the value of the expression. This mainly involves collecting like
terms, which means that we add together anything that can be added together.

Here are the basic steps to follow to simplify an algebraic expression:

1. Distributive law

2. Combining like terms

Combining Like Terms

Example 2.3 A: Simply 9x + 3y + 4x + 2y

Circle the like terms.

Rewrite the terms side by side. Combine the like term.

Using Distributive law

Example 2.3 B: Simplify 2(x + 4) + 3(x -5) – 2y

Use the distributive law to get rid of the parenthesis

Rewrite the like term together.

Combine the like terms.

2.4 Writing an Algebraic Expression

Variables are used to change verbal expressions into algebraic expressions, that is, expressions
that are composed of letters that stand for numbers. Key words that can help you translate
words into letters and numbers include:
● For addition: sum, more than, greater than, increase
● For subtraction: minus, less than, smaller than, decrease
● For multiplication: times, product, multiplied by, of
● For division: halve, divided by, ratio.

Example2.4 A: write each phrase as a mathematical expression.

Phrase Expression
Nine increased by a number x 9+x
Fourteen decreased by a number p 14 - p
The product of 9 and a number n 9n
32 divided by a number y 32/y
Five more than twice a number 2n + 5
Seven divided by twice a number 7/2x
Three times a number decreased by 11 3n - 11
 Practice Exercise
1 Evaluate the following when,
𝑥 = 5, 𝑦 = −2, 𝑧 = 3; 𝑎 = 3, 𝑏 = 4, 𝑐 = 6; 𝑝 = 2, 𝑞 = −3, 𝑟 = 4, 𝑠 = −1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡 = 0

a. (𝑥𝑦𝑧) + 𝑥𝑦 – 𝑧
b. (x + y) + [xy + (yz)]
𝑥+𝑦+𝑧
c. + 24
𝑧
d. a(2c-b)
e. ab[(3b - c)-a)]
f. 3[(2t – 1) + rs]
g. p(2q + 3r)
h. (q + r) (s + t) – pq

2 Simplify the algebraic expression using the mathematical operations:

a. 7𝑎 × 18
b. 22040𝑎 ÷ 20
25 2
c. 15y × -4 3
d. 28ℎ – 5[2(ℎ – 2) − 2(ℎ − 12)]
e. 5(2x + y)
f. 3(2a + b) – 2(4a – 3b)
g. 7ℎ – 2[3(ℎ – 2) – 2(ℎ – 12)]
1 1
h. 2 [2x + 2(4x – 12)]
i. 3(𝑝 – 2𝑞) – 4(2𝑝 – 3𝑞 – 5)
3 Add the following expressions:
a. 9𝑚 + 7𝑛 − 10𝑝, −8𝑛, 2𝑝 + 4𝑛 + 9𝑚
b. -5a + 8b + 2c + 4d, 3a – 6b + 8c
c. 2a + 3b – 4c, 3a – 2b, -4a + 5c and a – 2b + c
d. p + 2q – 4r, 2p – 3q + 5r, 3p – q + 2r

4 Subtract the first expressions from the second expressions:

a. 18a – 3b + 15c – 2d, 10a – 4b – 14c – 6d
b. 12q – 3r – 5s, p – 2q – 16r
c. 8a – 3b + 5c – 2d, 10a – b – 4c – 6d
d. 2q – 3r – s, p -4q – 6r
e. 7p + 6q – 5r, 10p – 7q + 8r
5 Simplify the following:
𝑥 2𝑥−4
a. +
5 7
2𝑥+7 6𝑥−3
b. -
3 5
4𝑥+1 3𝑥−1
c. +
5 2
3(𝑦−2) 4(2𝑦−3)
d. -
4 5
2𝑥−7 𝑥−6
e. +
4 7
𝑥+𝑦 3𝑥−𝑦 7(2𝑥−4)
f. + −
2 5 6
𝑥 𝑥+2 𝑥−3
g. + +
2 3 4
𝑥−4 2𝑥−5
h. 2𝑥 + −
9 3

6 Factorize the algebraic expressions:

a. 4x + 8y +16z
b. 2h (5x + 2) – (5x + 2)
c. 5x – 15
d. dx +dy +dz
e. 4x + 12
f. 3a + 6ax – 9az
g. -10x + 25
h. 4m – 6my – 18mz
i. 3a (x – 3) – 6k (x – 3)
j. 6hx + 12ky + 9kx + 8hy
k. 24vx – 15uy – 20vy + 18ux
l. 5y (m + 3n) + 10z (m+ 3n)
m. 6az – 15z + 5 – 2a
n. 3ky – 4hx + 12hy – kx
o. 5x (2a + b – 3c) – 6y (2a + b – 3c)

7 Solve the algebraic equations:

a. 4a – 3 = 13
b. a + 5 = 17
c. y – 7 = - 1.3
d. 9(2x + 7) = 11(x + 14)
e. k + 0.7 = 2.7
f. 6(2x + 5) = 2(5x – 3)
g. 8.3 – 3x = 2.6
h. 5(x+3) + 2(x+1) = 5 – 4x
8 Let x denote unknown. Derive an equation for each of the following:

a. When a number is increased by 12 and then multiplied by 3, the final result is 10.
b. When a number is increased by 7, the result is 18.
c. When a number is decreased by 28, the result is 7.
d. When a number is multiplied by 2, the result is 28.

9 Simply the following using algebra.

a. Three times the variable x divided by the sum of 3 and k
b. Five times a number which is three more than h
c. One quarter of a number which is 4 less than m.
d. The total number of eggs in 𝑘 cartons where each carton contains n eggs.
e. Eight more than half of a number v.
f. The sum of two consecutive number is 37. What are they?
g. The sum of two consecutive odd number is 52. What are the two odd numbers?
h. A class of 50 students is divided into two groups, one group has eight less than the other,
and how many are in each group?

10 An electrician charges $45 per hour and spends $20 a day on gasoline. Write an algebraic
expression to represent his earnings for one day.

11 A small company has $1000 to distribute to its employees as a bonus. How much money will
each employee get?

12 Write the algebraic expression for the following:

a. Eight time the number x decreased by 4
b. Product of five times the number y and 4
c. Three times the number t decreased by 4
d. Five times the variable x divided by the sum of 3 and k
e. Five times the number x increased by 42
f. The product of a number 4k and 6
13 The age of Marry is two times that of James and James is five years old than Jhon. If the age of
James is y write the algebraic expressions for:
a. Jhon’s age today,
b. Marry’s age today,
c. The sum of Marry’s, Jame’s and Jhon’s age.

14 The price of an apple is two times more than that of mango and the price of banana is three times
of mango less than half of price of apples. If mango is x $ write the algebraic expressions for:
 a. Price of an apple
b. Price of a banana
c. The product of the prices of apple, mango and banana

15 Ali is three times old as Akbar and Akbar is five years old than Sara. If Akbar is x years old
write the algebraic expression for the following:
a. Ali’s age today,
b. Sara’s age today.
 Answer Key
Practice Exercise (Chapter # 1 Sets and Number System)
Question # 1

a) 𝐴 = {1, 3 , 4 , 5 } b) 𝐴 − 𝐵 = { 1 , 3}

c) 𝐵 = {2 , 4 , 5 , 6 } d) 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = {1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6}

e) 𝐴′ = {2 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 10} f) 𝐵 ∪ 𝐶 = {1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 10}
 g) 𝐵 ′ = {1 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 ,10} h) 𝐴 ∩ 𝐶 = {1 , 5}

i) 𝐶 ′ = {2 , 3 , 4 , 8 , 9} j) 𝐵 ∩ 𝐶 = {5 , 6}

k) 𝐶 − 𝐴 = {6 , 7 , 10} l) (𝐵 ∪ 𝐶)′ = {3 , 8 , 9}

Question # 2
a) Infinite` b) Finite
c) Finite d) Infinite`
e) Finite f) Infinite`
g) Infinite` h) Finite
i) Infinite` j) Finite
k) Infinite` l) Finite
Question # 3
a) {101,102,103, … … . . } b) {0,1,2,3, … … … ,14} c) {8,10,12,14,16}

Question # 4

𝕌 𝑭𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈
𝑺𝒘𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈

𝟔 𝟗 𝟑
𝟔

Question # 5 d Question # 6 b
Question # 7 b Question # 8 b

Question # 9
a) √16
b)
7 1
̅̅̅̅̅
, √16 , √ , 3.692692
8 2
c) √30 , −√42 , 4𝜋

Question # 10

a) 8.5 b) 3
4
c) √40 d) √49

Question # 11

a) 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑒 b) 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑒
c) 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑒 d) 𝐹𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑒
Question # 12

𝜋 , √10 , √11 , √12 , √13 , √14 , √15

Practice Exercise (Chapter # 6 Algebra)

1a −43 1e 36
1b −13 1f −15
1c 26 1g 12
1d 24 1h 5

2a 126𝑎 2f −2𝑎 + 9𝑏
2b 1102𝑎 2g 5ℎ − 36
2c 70𝑦 2h 2𝑥 − 3
−
9
2d 28ℎ − 100 2i −5𝑝 + 6𝑞 + 20
2e 10𝑥 + 5𝑦

3a 18𝑚 + 3𝑛 − 8𝑝 3c 2𝑎 − 𝑏 + 2𝑐
3b −2𝑎 + 2𝑏 + 10𝑐 + 4𝑑 3d 6𝑝 − 2𝑞 + 3𝑟

4a −8𝑎 − 𝑏 − 29𝑐 − 4𝑑 4d 𝑝 − 6𝑞 − 3𝑟 + 𝑠
4b 𝑝 − 14𝑞 − 13𝑟 + 5𝑠 4e 3𝑝 − 13𝑞 + 13𝑟
4c 2𝑎 + 2𝑏 − 9𝑐 − 4𝑑

5a 17𝑥 − 20 5e 18𝑥 − 73
35 28
5b −8𝑥 + 44 5f −37𝑥 + 9𝑦 + 140
15 30
5c 23𝑥 − 3 5g 13𝑥 − 1
10 12
5d −17𝑦 + 3 5h 13𝑥 + 11
20 9

6a 4(𝑥 + 2𝑦 + 4𝑧) 6i (3𝑎 − 6𝑘)(𝑥 − 3)

6b (5𝑥 + 2)(2ℎ − 1) 6j (2ℎ + 3𝑘)(3𝑥 + 4𝑦)
6c 5(𝑥 − 3) 6k (3𝑢 + 4𝑣)(6𝑥 − 5𝑦)
6d 𝑑(𝑥 + 𝑦 + 𝑧) 6l 5(𝑚 + 3𝑛)(𝑦 + 2𝑧)
6e 4(𝑥 + 3) 6m (3𝑧 − 1)(2𝑎 − 5)
6f 3𝑎(1 + 2𝑥 − 3𝑧) 6n (𝑘 − 4ℎ)(3𝑦 − 𝑥)
6g 5(−2𝑥 + 5) 6o (2𝑎 + 𝑏 − 3𝑐)(5𝑥 − 6𝑦)
6h 2𝑚(2 − 3𝑦 − 9𝑧)

7a 𝑎=4 7e 𝑘=2
7b 𝑎 = 12 7f 𝑥 = −18
7c 𝑦 = 5.7 7g 𝑥 = 1.9
7d 𝑥 = 13 7h −12
ℎ=
11

8a 3(𝑥 + 12) = 10 8c 𝑥 − 28 = 7
8b 7𝑥 = 18 8d 2𝑥 = 28

9a 3𝑥 9e 𝑣
8+
3+𝑘 2
9b 5𝑥 = 3 + ℎ 9f 18,19
9c 𝑥 9g 25,27
=𝑚−4
4
9d 𝑛𝑘 9h 21, 29

10 45𝑥 − 20 11 1000
𝑥

12a 8𝑥 − 4 12d 5𝑥
3+𝑘
12b 20𝑦 12e 5𝑥 + 42
12c 3𝑡 − 4 12f 24𝑘

13a 𝑦−5 13c 4𝑦 − 5

13b 2𝑦

14a 3x 14c 9𝑥 3
2
14b 3𝑥
2

15a 3𝑥 15b 𝑥−5

 Pretest

B efore you start your mathematical study, you may want to get an idea of how much you already
know and how much you need to learn. If that’s the case, take the pretest in this chapter. The pretest
is 50 multiple-choice questions covering all the lessons in this book. Naturally, 50 questions can’t
cover every single concept, idea, or shortcut you will learn by working through this book. So even if you get all of
the questions on the pretest right, it’s almost guaranteed that you will find a few concepts or tricks in this book
that you didn’t already know. On the other hand, if you get a lot of the answers wrong on this pretest, don’t despair.
This book will show you how to get better at math, step by step.
So use this pretest just to get a general idea of how much of what’s in this book you already know. If you get
a high score on the pretest, you may be able to spend less time with this book than you originally planned. If you
get a low score, you may find that you will need more than 20 minutes a day to get through each chapter and learn
all the math you need to know.
There’s an answer sheet you can use for filling in the correct answers on page 3. Or, if you prefer, simply cir-
cle the answer numbers in this book. If the book doesn’t belong to you, write the numbers 1–50 on a piece of paper
and record your answers there. Take as much time as you need to do this short test. You will probably need some
sheets of scratch paper. When you finish, check your answers against the answer key at the end of the pretest. Each
answer tells you which lesson of this book teaches you about the type of math in that question.

1
 – LEARNINGEXPRESS ANSWER SHEET –

1. a b c d 18. a b c d 35. a b c d
2. a b c d 19. a b c d 36. a b c d
3. a b c d 20. a b c d 37. a b c d
4. a b c d 21. a b c d 38. a b c d
5. a b c d 22. a b c d 39. a b c d
6. a b c d 23. a b c d 40. a b c d
7. a b c d 24. a b c d 41. a b c d
8. a b c d 25. a b c d 42. a b c d
9. a b c d 26. a b c d 43. a b c d
10. a b c d 27. a b c d 44. a b c d
11. a b c d 28. a b c d 45. a b c d
12. a b c d 29. a b c d 46. a b c d
13. a b c d 30. a b c d 47. a b c d
14. a b c d 31. a b c d 48. a b c d
15. a b c d 32. a b c d 49. a b c d
16. a b c d 33. a b c d 50. a b c d
17. a b c d 34. a b c d

3
 – PRETEST –

 Pretest 5. What is the decimal value of 5?

8
a. 0.56
b. 0.625
1. Name the fraction that indicates the shaded part c. 0.8
of the figure below. d. 0.835

6. Convert 125 into 60ths.

2
a. 60
15
b. 
60
8
2 c. 60
a. 
5 17
1 d. 
b.  60
5
1 3 1
c.  7. 14 + 32 =
8
1
d. 
10 a. 41
4
b. 43
2. Four ounces is what fraction of a pound? (one 4

pound = 16 ounces) c. 51

4

a. 1
 d. 51
3 2
3
b. 
8 8. 4 – 14 =
1 5
c. 
4 a. 21
1 5
d. 
6 b. 24
5

3. Change 54 into a mixed number. c. 33

7 10
13
a. 6 d. 31
14 5
4
b. 7 7
7 9.  – 1 =
12 3
c. 75 1
7 a. 
4
d. 81 1
7 b. 
3
5
4. Which fraction is smallest? c. 
6
3 5
a.  d. 
8 12
1
b.  5 2
4  1
4 10. 2
5 5 =
c. 
24 a. 214
1
d. 
6 b. 316
7
c.  
360

d. 379

5
 – PRETEST –

11. 5
  4 = 15. A layer cake recipe calls for 413 cups of flour. If it
8 15
1 makes 3 layers, how much flour goes into each
a. 
6 layer?
2
b. 
5 a. 113
9
c. 
15 b. 2
7
d. 
45 c. 119

12. 1
  16  3 = d. 149
2 8
1
a. 
4 16. Change 3 to a decimal.
5
b. 25 a. 0.6
16
c. 3 b. 0.06
c. 0.35
d. 414
d. 0.7

13. Rebecca’s cell phone plan gives her 500 minutes

17. Round 0.31275 to the nearest thousandth.
per month. She spends 150 minutes each month
a. 0.31
checking her voice mail. What fraction of her
b. 0.312
minutes are spent checking her voice mail?
c. 0.313
5
a.  d. 0.3128
3
3
b. 
25
2 18. Which is the largest number?
c. 
5
a. 0.025
3
d.  b. 0.5
10
c. 0.25
14. A bread recipe calls for 61 cups of flour, but d. 0.05
2
Chris has only 51 cups. How much more flour
3
does Chris need? 19. 2.36 + 14 + 0.083 =
2 a. 14.059
a.  cup
3
5 b. 16.443
b.  cup
6 c. 16.69
c. 116 cups d. 17.19
d. 114 cups
20. 1.5 – 0.188 =
a. 0.62
b. 1.262
c. 1.27
d. 1.312

6
 – PRETEST –

21. 12 – 0.92 + 4.6 = 27. What is 15% of 80?

a. 17.52 a. 10
b. 16.68 b. 12
c. 15.68 c. 15
d. 8.4 d. 18

22. 2.39  10,000 = 28. 5 is what percent of 4?

a. 239 a. 80%
b. 2,390 b. 85%
c. 23,900 c. 105%
d. 239,000 d. 125%

23. 5  0.0063 = 29. Eighteen percent of Centerville’s total yearly

a. 0.0315 $1,250,000 budget is spent on road repairs. How
b. 0.315 much money does Centerville spend on road
c. 3.15 repairs each year?
d. 31.5 a. $11,250
b. $22,500
24. Over a period of four days, Tyler drove a total of c. $112,500
956.58 miles. What is the average number of d. $225,000
miles Tyler drove each day?
a. 239.145 30. Mark earns $250 a week. Every eight weeks, he
b. 239.2 buys himself $80 worth of clothing. What per-
c. 249.045 centage of his income is spent on clothes?
d. 249.45 a. 4%
b. 2.5%
25. 45% is equal to what fraction? c. 25%
a. 4

d. 16%
5
5
b. 
31. 16 is 20% of what number?
8
25
c.  a. 8
50
d. 9

b. 12.5
20
c. 32
26. 0.925 is equal to what percent? d. 80
a. 925%
b. 92.5%
c. 9.25%
d. 0.0925%

7
 – PRETEST –

32. In January, Bart’s electricity bill was $35.00. In 37. A bag contains 105 jelly beans: 23 white, 23 red,
February, his bill was $42.00. By what percent did 14 purple, 26 yellow, and 19 green ones. What is
his electricity bill increase? the probability of selecting either a yellow or a
a. 7% green jelly bean?
b. 12% a. 3

7
c. 16% 1
d. 20% b. 
6
1
c. 
12
33. On a state road map, one inch represents 20 d. 2

9
miles. Denise wants to travel from Garden City
to Marshalltown, which is a distance of 414 inches 38. In a stack of 360 lottery tickets, 15 will win a free
on the map. How many miles will Denise travel? ticket and 112 will win some other prize. How
a. 45 many worthless tickets are there?
b. 82 a. 258
c. 85 b. 102
d. 90 c. 288
d. 264
34. The male-to-female ratio at a small college is 2:3.
If there are 1,800 men, how many women are 39. Jennifer splits a $35.52 electric bill with her two
there? roommates. If she puts in $20.00, how much
a. 1,200 should she get back?
b. 2,700 a. $2.24
c. 3,600 b. $15.52
d. 9,000 c. $9.16
d. $8.16
35. The high temperatures for the first five days in
September are as follows: Sunday, 72°; Monday, 40. Joey smokes half his cigarettes and then gives
79°; Tuesday, 81°; Wednesday, 74°; Thursday, 68°. away 23 of what is left. If he ends up with just two
What is the average (mean) high temperature for cigarettes, how many did he start with?
those five days? a. 8
a. 73.5° b. 10
b. 74° c. 12
c. 74.8° d. 20
d. 75.1°

36. What are the median and mode of 3, 4, 7, 7, 8, 9,

9, 9, and 10?
a. median = 8, mode = 8
b. median = 8, mode = 9
c. median = 7, mode = 8
d. median = 7, mode = 9

8
 – PRETEST –

41. Of the 80 employees working on the road- 44. What is the perimeter of the polygon below?
construction crew, 35% worked overtime this
5"
week. How many employees did NOT work
2"
overtime? 5"
a. 28
b. 45
c. 52 6"
d. 56 4"

42. If the price of gasoline is p dollars a gallon and 2"

Mark’s car gets m miles to the gallon, how much a. 24"
does he spend in gas to go 50 miles? b. 25"
a. 50p

c. 27"
m
d. 32"
b. 50pm
50
c.   45. A certain triangle has an area of 9 square inches.
pm

d.
50m
 If its base is 3 inches, what is its height in inches?
2p
a. 3
43. Which of the following is an obtuse angle? b. 4
a. c. 6
d. 12
b.
46. A rectangular rug is six feet longer than it is wide.
If the total perimeter is 44 feet, what are its
c. dimensions?
a. 4 feet by 10 feet
b. 4 feet by 11 feet
d. c. 8 feet by 14 feet
d. 6 feet by 16 feet

47. The area of a square room is 64 square feet. What

is the perimeter?
a. 128
b. 64
c. 16
d. 32

9
 – PRETEST –

48. What is the approximate circumference of a 50. 7 ft. 7 in. + 4 ft. 10 in. =
circle whose diameter is 14 inches? a. 11 ft. 3 in.
a. 22 inches b. 12 ft. 3 in.
b. 44 inches c. 12 ft. 5 in.
c. 66 inches d. 13 ft. 2 in.
d. 88 inches

49. 3  (6 + 1) – 4 =
a. 6
b. 9
c. 17
d. 19

10
 – PRETEST –

 Answer Key

If you miss any of the answers, you can find help for that kind of question in the lesson shown to the right of the
answer.

1. d. Lesson 1 26. b. Lesson 9

2. c. Lessons 1, 4 27. b. Lesson 10
3. c. Lesson 1 28. d. Lesson 10
4. d. Lesson 2 29. d. Lesson 10
5. b. Lesson 2 30. a. Lesson 10
6. c. Lesson 2 31. d. Lessons 10, 11
7. c. Lesson 3 32. d. Lesson 11
8. a. Lesson 3 33. c. Lesson 12
9. a. Lesson 3 34. b. Lesson 12
10. b. Lesson 4 35. c. Lesson 13
11. a. Lesson 4 36. b. Lesson 13
12. c. Lesson 4 37. a. Lesson 14
13. d. Lesson 5 38. a. Lessons 3, 15
14. c. Lesson 5 39. d. Lessons 8, 15
15. d. Lesson 5 40. c. Lessons 5, 15, 16
16. a. Lesson 6 41. c. Lessons 10, 16
17. c. Lesson 6 42. c. Lessons 12, 16
18. b. Lesson 6 43. b. Lesson 17
19. b. Lesson 7 44. a. Lesson 18
20. d. Lesson 7 45. c. Lesson 18
21. c. Lesson 7 46. c. Lessons 18, 19
22. c. Lesson 8 47. d. Lessons 18, 19
23. a. Lesson 8 48. b. Lesson 19
24. a. Lesson 8 49. c. Lesson 20
25. d. Lesson 9 50. c. Lesson 20

11
 Posttest

N ow that you’ve spent a good deal of time improving your math skills, take this posttest to see how
much you’ve learned. If you took the pretest at the beginning of this book, you have a good way
to compare what you knew when you started the book with what you know now.
When you complete this test, grade yourself, and then compare your score with your score on the pretest.
If your score now is much greater than your pretest score, congratulations—you’ve profited noticeably from your
hard work. If your score shows little improvement, perhaps there are certain chapters you need to review. Do you
notice a pattern to the types of questions you got wrong? Whatever you score on this posttest, keep this book around
for review and to refer to when you are unsure of a specific math rule.
There’s an answer sheet you can use for filling in the correct answers on the next page. Or, if you prefer, sim-
ply circle the answer numbers in this book. If the book doesn’t belong to you, write the numbers 1–50 on a piece
of paper and record your answers there. Take as much time as you need to do this short test. When you finish, check
your answers against the answer key that follows this test. Each answer tells you which lesson of this book teaches
you about the type of math in that question.

203
 – LEARNINGEXPRESS ANSWER SHEET –

1. a b c d 18. a b c d 35. a b c d
2. a b c d 19. a b c d 36. a b c d
3. a b c d 20. a b c d 37. a b c d
4. a b c d 21. a b c d 38. a b c d
5. a b c d 22. a b c d 39. a b c d
6. a b c d 23. a b c d 40. a b c d
7. a b c d 24. a b c d 41. a b c d
8. a b c d 25. a b c d 42. a b c d
9. a b c d 26. a b c d 43. a b c d
10. a b c d 27. a b c d 44. a b c d
11. a b c d 28. a b c d 45. a b c d
12. a b c d 29. a b c d 46. a b c d
13. a b c d 30. a b c d 47. a b c d
14. a b c d 31. a b c d 48. a b c d
15. a b c d 32. a b c d 49. a b c d
16. a b c d 33. a b c d 50. a b c d
17. a b c d 34. a b c d

205
 – POSTTEST –

5 1
 Posttest 5.  – 
6 4

a. 172
1. Tamara took a trip from Carson to Porterville, a
b. 2
distance of 110 miles. After she had driven the
1
first 66 miles, she stopped for gas. What fraction c. 
6
of the trip remained? 5
d. 24
1
a. 
5
14 2
1 6.  –  =
b.  15 3
4
2 a. 145
c. 
5
7 b. 13
d. 10
c. 130
2. Of the 35 students enrolled in a personal finan- d. 152
cial management course, 40% were men. How
many of the students were women? 7. What is 0.3738 rounded to the nearest
a. 12 hundredth?
b. 14 a. 0.37
c. 18 b. 0.374
d. 21 c. 0.38
d. 0.4
3. During a charity bake sale, 23 of the cakes were
sold by noon. Of the cakes that remained, 12 sold 8. 0.92 + 12 + 0.2847 =
by 3:00 P.M. If there were 11 cakes left at 3:00 P.M., a. 12.94847
how many cakes were there to begin with? b. 13.2047
a. 44 c. 13.247
b. 56 d. 25.5254
c. 66
d. 72 9. 0.53  1,000 =
a. 5.3
4. Name the fraction that indicates the shaded part b. 53
of the following figure. c. 530
d. 5,300

10. 0.185 is equal to what percent?

2 a. 185%
a. 
3
2 b. 18.5%
b. 
5
c. 1.85%
2
c. 6 d. 0.0185%
1
d. 
6

207
 – POSTTEST –

11. 42 is 30% of what number? 17. Which of the following is not an isosceles triangle?
a. 12.6 a.
b. 72

l
c. 126
d. 140 l

b.
12. Which of the following numbers is the largest?
a. 0.065

l
b. 0.27
c. 0.1999
l
d. 0.07

c.
13. The high temperature on Friday was 45° F, on
Saturday, 38.7° F, and on Sunday, 46.2° F. What
was the average high temperature for the three
days?
a. 43.3° F
d.
b. 43° F

l
c. 45° F
l

d. 46.2° F

14. Madeline’s truck gets 14.4 miles to the gallon. If

gasoline costs $1.80 per gallon, how many dollars 5 3
18.   1
worth of gasoline does she spend in driving 100 8 0 =

miles? a. 49
a. $2.59 b. 56
b. $12.50
c. 136
c. $16.20
d. $18 d. 1225

15. 4 ft. 2 in. – 2 ft. 11 in. = 19. Three inches is what fraction of one foot?
a. 1 ft. 3 in. (one foot = 12 inches)
b. 1 ft. 6 in. a. 16
c. 1 ft. 9 in. b. 14
d. 2 ft. 9 in. 1
c. 
3
3
16. What is the length of a rectangle that has an area d. 8

of 39 square feet and a width of 3 feet?

a. 7 feet
b. 9 feet
c. 12 feet
d. 13 feet

208
 – POSTTEST –

20. Change 389 into a mixed number. 26. Which fraction is largest?
a. 254
a. 458
b. 19
b. 478
1
c. 
c. 41156 6
5
d. 3
d. 518 6

27. If a 28-inch length of twine is divided into

21. Change 45 to a decimal.
5 equal pieces, how long will each piece be?
a. 0.8
a. 4190 inches
b. 0.08
c. 0.45 b. 512 inches
d. 0.045 c. 535 inches
d. 545 inches
22. 3 × 0.0009
a. 0.00027
28. A round above-ground swimming pool has a
b. 0.0027
diameter of 15 feet. Which of the following most
c. 0.027
closely approximates the area of the base?
d. 0.27
a. 30
b. 45
23. What is 17% of 25?
c. 175
a. 3.95
d. 705
b. 4.5
c. 4.15
29. Find the perimeter of the following right triangle:
d. 4.25

24. Convert 47 to 35ths.

12
a. 
35 4"
13
b. 
35
15
c. 
35 3"
20
d. 
35 a. 6
b. 7
25. How much money should be left for a $21 meal c. 12
with a 15% tip? d. 32
a. $23.10
b. $24.15 30. What is the decimal value of 56?
c. $22.50 a. 1.2
d. $52.50 b. 0.6
c. 0.56
d. 0.83

209
 – POSTTEST –

31. 9  159 = 36. 3

1
2
0  5 =

a. 749 a. 34

b. 723 b. 165
8
c. 1
c. 789 5

d. 849 d. 113

32. 3.1  0.267 = 37. 15  (5  2) + 4 =

a. 0.43 a. 2
b. 2.833 b. 5
c. 2.943 c. 9
d. 3.0733 d. 13

33. 32% is equal to what fraction? 38. 6  0.05 + 2.9 =

a. 13 a. 7.34
b. 8.4
b. 23 c. 8.85
5
c.  d. 9.95
12
8
d. 
25
39. Frieda divides a 1012-ounce chocolate bar into
34. Lucas’s cholesterol count went from 320 to 295. four equal pieces. How many ounces is each piece?
Approximately what was the percentage of this a. 212 ounces
decrease? b. 258 ounces
a. 7.8% c. 234 ounces
b. 8.5%
c. 2.5% d. 3 ounces
d. 25%
40. Over a period of four weeks, Emilio spent a total
35. The average of three numbers is 73. If one of of $453.80 on groceries. What is the average
those numbers is 67 and another is 75, what is amount Emilio spent on groceries each week?
the third number? a. $109.44
a. 72 b. $110.34
b. 73 c. $112.20
c. 76 d. $113.45
d. 77
41. What percentage of a day is 90 minutes?
a. 2.5%
b. 6.25%
c. 8.3 %
d. 9%

210
 – POSTTEST –

42. 18 is what percent of 12? 47. For a family reunion, Nicole estimates that she
a. 67% will need to buy 1.5 gallons of fruit punch for
b. 120% every 10 people. If 78 people attend the reunion,
c. 150% how much fruit punch will Nicole need to buy?
d. 180% a. 5.2
b. 8.3
43. The perimeter of a rectangular room is 52 feet. c. 10.9
If the short side of the room is 12 feet, what is d. 11.7
the length of long side of the room?
a. 14 feet 48. 5  (2) =
b. 16 feet a. 3
c. 28 feet b. 3
d. 30 feet c. 7
d. 7
44. One sock will be blindly removed from a drawer
that contains 20 black socks, 12 white socks, and 49. Each week, Marvin puts 8% of his take-home pay
8 red socks. What is the probability that the sock into a savings account. If Marvin saves $22.80
will be red? each week, what is the amount of his weekly
a. 25 take-home pay?
b. 2

a. $182.40
3
1
b. $209.76
c. 
9 c. $268.00
1
d.  d. $285.00
5

45. There is a sale on grapefruit that offers 5 for $2. 50. The 27 students in Mr. Harris’s fourth-grade
How many grapefruit can be bought with $12? class conducted a survey to determine the stu-
a. 60 dents’ favorite colors. Eight students chose red as
b. 10 their favorite color; 7 chose green; 3 chose yellow.
c. 120 The remaining chose blue. What is the probabil-
d. 30 ity that a student’s favorite color is blue?
1
a. 3
46. What is the area of a right triangle with a base of 2
b. 
4 meters and a height of 6 meters? 3
5
a. 10 square meters c. 
9
b. 12 square meters d. 1
4
c. 20 square meters
d. 24 square meters

211
 – POSTTEST –

 Answer Key

1. c. Lesson 5 26. a. Lesson 2

2. d. Lessons 5, 16 27. c. Lesson 5
3. c. Lesson 15 28. c. Lesson 19
4. c. Lesson 1 29. c. Lesson 18
5. a. Lesson 3 30. d. Lesson 9
6. a. Lesson 3 31. a. Lesson 3
7. a. Lesson 6 32. b. Lesson 7
8. b. Lesson 7 33. d. Lesson 9
9. c. Lesson 8 34. a. Lesson 10
10. b. Lesson 9 35. d. Lesson 13
11. d. Lesson 11 36. a. Lesson 4
12. b. Lesson 6 37. c. Lesson 20
13. a. Lessons 7, 13, 15 38. c. Lesson 7
14. b. Lessons 8, 12 39. b. Lesson 5
15. a. Lesson 20 40. d. Lessons 8, 13
16. d. Lesson 19 41. b. Lesson 10
17. c. Lesson 18 42. c. Lesson 10
18. c. Lesson 4 43. a. Lesson 19
19. b. Lesson 1 44. d. Lesson 14
20. b. Lesson 1 45. d. Lesson 12
21. a. Lesson 6 46. b. Lesson 18
22. b. Lesson 8 47. d. Lesson 12
23. d. Lesson 10 48. a. Lesson 20
24. d. Lesson 2 49. d. Lesson 11
25. b. Lesson 11 50. a. Lesson 14

212
 Glossary of Terms

Denominator: The bottom number in a fraction. Example: 2 is the denominator in 12.

Difference: The difference between two numbers means subtract one number from the other.
Divisible by: A number is divisible by a second number if that second number divides evenly into the original
number. Example: 10 is divisible by 5 (10 ÷ 5  2, with no remainder). However, 10 is not divisible by 3.
(See multiple of )
Even integer: Integers that are divisible by 2, such as 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, and so on. (See integer)
Integer: A number along the number line, such as 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on. Integers include whole
numbers and their negatives. (See whole number)
Multiple of: A number is a multiple of a second number if that second number can be multiplied by an integer
to get the original number. Example: 10 is a multiple of 5 (10  5  2); however, 10 is not a multiple of 3.
(See divisible by)
Negative number: A number that is less than zero, such as 1, 18.6, 14.
Numerator: The top part of a fraction. Example: 1 is the numerator in 12.
Odd integer: Integers that aren’t divisible by 2, such as 5, 3, 1, 1, 3, and so on.
Positive number: A number that is greater than zero, such as 2, 42, 12, 4.63.
Prime number: An integer that is divisible only by 1 and itself, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and so on. All prime num-
bers are odd, except for 2. The number 1 is not considered prime.
Product: The answer of a multiplication problem.
Quotient: The answer you get when you divide. Example: 10 divided by 5 is 2; the quotient is 2.
Real number: Any number you can think of, such as 17, 5, 12, 23.6, 3.4329, 0. Real numbers include the
integers, fractions, and decimals. (See integer)
Remainder: The number left over after division. Example: 11 divided by 2 is 5, with a remainder of 1.
Sum: The sum of two numbers means the two numbers are added together.
Whole number: Numbers you can count on your fingers, such as 1, 2, 3, and so on. All whole numbers are positive.

213
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Karachi