If I ride 7 miles in the morning and then I ride five times that in the afternoon how many miles did I ride

Question

If I ride 7 miles in the morning and then I ride five times back in the afternoon how many miles did I ride

Answer 1

You rode 7 miles in the morning. So start the equation with the number 7.

7

In the afternoon, you rode 5 times more than you did that morning. Let’s add 7 for the number of morning miles, and multiply it by 5.

7 + (5 X 7) = ?

The word problem has grouped 5 and 7 away from the previous 7 from the morning. You add parentheses to show a part of the equation has been grouped together and this makes a smaller equation to be solved first based on the order of operations rule. The order of operations rule needs to be used if there is more than one operation (+, -, X) in an equation. A good way to remember the order of operations for solving equations is to remember the acronym PEDMAS. (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction).

The value of (5 X 7) can be found in two ways.

(5) seven ways:

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5

OR

(7) five ways:

7 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7

Both equal the value 35. Now let’s plug it into the equation where we previously had (5 X 7).

7 + (35) = ?

If there is not an operation (+, - , X) in the parentheses, and the number inside the parentheses is not being multiplied by another number-then drop the parentheses.

***You know the 35 is not being multiplied by 7 because the word problem says “AND five times...” which means in addition to.

***If a number is in parentheses without an operation, it needs to look like this to call for multiplication. 5(35) or 5 X (35).

After the parentheses are dropped, the equation will look like this:

7 + 35 = ?

The last step is to add 7 and 35 to find the total number of miles ridden.

Counting from 35:

35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

So the answer is:

7 + 35 = 42

Hope this helps!