My daughters 3rd grade math problem

Question

Enough snow!  All of the melting snow is causing damage to Dr. Richmond's house.  She needs to hire people to shovel off her deck.

 

Dr. Richmond says when the job is completed to her satisfaction, she will pay $48 to the shovelers to share as they see fair.

 

If there are 3 decks and 6 shovelers (Maloy, Shawn, Jesse, Tanner, Bradley and Hadley), how should the work and money be shared?

 

The deck sizes:

       Deck A-Half the size of deck B

       Deck B-80 square feet

       Deck C-120 square feet

 

 

Answer 1

Hi Maria,

 

I find it helpful to draw a picture of each of the decks to help me see the relationship between A, B, and C.  

 

Deck A is 20ft x 20ft =   40 sq ft

Deck B is 20ft x 40ft =   80 sq ft

Deck C is 20ft x 60ft = 120 sq ft

                                  240 sq ft

  

If each student shovels the same amount, then each student will shovel an area that is 20ft x 20ft. Thus, 

Deck A needs 1 student

Deck B needs 2 students 

Deck C needs 3 students

 

If each shoveler is doing the same amount of work, then it seems most fair to divide the pay equally among all six.  Thus, 48 dollars / 6 shovellers = 8 dollars each.  

 

This seems a rather sophisticated problem for 3rd grade.

 

Please click the thumbs up/down to let me know if you found this helpful. 

Thanks, 

Diane

 

 

 

 

Answer 2

Hi Maria,

            Since the decks are 40,80 and 120 sq ft the total area is 240 sq ft. Now if we assume all 6 shoveled an equal amount that is 240/6=40 sq ft and the job was worth $48/240=.20$/sqft each person should be paid 40*.20=$8.

 

Hope this helps

Jim

 

   

Answer 3

I agree with the answer of $8. But when I tutored 3rd grade math,the teachers would hand out problems that had "irrelevant" information and the student would need to pull out important information. So, in this question... we know $48 shall be shared 'equally'. The question asks how it should be divided - the word equally is key. This tells the student divide 48/6=8.

 

 

I hope this helps some.