you buy a book that is 540 pages long. You can read about 30 pages per hour. How long does it take you to read the book?

Question

pre algebra question...so simple yet my brain is going to explode

Answer 1

Just another tip to add: look at the units!

 

You're given the following info:

• 540 pages
• 30 pages/hour

And you're looking for 

• x hours

 

Remember that we are allowed to cancel units just like we can cancel equal terms in fractions. Based on the units alone, you can see that the given information lends itself to:

 

(30 pages/hour)*(x hours)=(540 pages)

30x pages = 540 pages

30x = 540

x=18

Answer 2

Hi Esse,

 

Take care of your brain. .  it's the only one you've got.

 

If the book was 30 pages long, it would take you 1 hour to read it.

 

If the book was 60 pages long, it would take you 2 hours to read it because there are two 30's in 60, or 60 divided by 30 is 2.

 

If the book was 90 pages long, it would take you 1 hour for the first 30 pages, another hour for the next 30 pages, and another hour for the last 30 pages or 3 hours.  90 divided by 30 is 3.

 

I think you can solve the problem now without affecting your brain.

 

Have fun.

 

Dan

Answer 3

If we read 30 pages in one hour, you could make a table to fill in additional hours. For example: 2 hours would be 60 pages, 3 hours would be 90 and so on until you get to 540 pages. This table building strategy may take some time, but it allows you to see the repetition of 30 pages every hour. Another way to solve this problem is to take the total pages (540) and divide it by the pages per hour (30). That gives you 18 hours to read the book. 

 

Check your answer... If you read 18 hours * 30 pages each hour, do you total 540 pages? 

Answer 4

In order to answer this question you divide 540 by 30 to get 18 hours.