Sumiyyea A. answered • 04/20/20
Experienced and Lively Math, English, and Writing Tutor
Hi,
To start off, in math when you see how much ____er or how much more it's a clue that means that you're going to use subtraction to solve the problem.
Now that we know we need to use subtraction, we're going to set up the equation by putting the bigger number first. We subtract from the bigger number because it's hard to subtract from the smaller number unless you're using a number line. It would also give you a negative number if you subtracted from the smaller answer, and time can never be negative,so you don't want to have a negative answer.
Another reason why we're subtracting from the bigger number in this case is because the question asks "How much longer Melissa's time was than Ryan's" That means we're focusing on Melissa's time which is the bigger number in this case.
To set up the equation you put:
5 minutes 19 seconds
-3 minutes 47 seconds. It's helpful to put them on top of each other, with the bigger number on top.
We start with the seconds, but because 19 seconds is less than 47 seconds, we can't subtract it. So we have to borrow a minute and turn it into seconds. Time conversions tell us that 1 minute = 60 seconds, so we borrow 1 minute form 5 minutes and add that 60 seconds to the 19 seconds on the other side.
5 minutes - 1 minute = 4 minutes
and 60 seconds + 19 seconds = 79 seconds.
Now we redo our equation:
4 minutes 79 seconds 4 - 3 = 1 minute
-3 minutes 42 seconds. and 79 - 42 = 37 seconds
1 minute 37 seconds
So we have our answer: 1 minute and 47 seconds.
Now you have to answer the question with a complete sentence. The question was "How much longer does Melissa(subject) clean(verb) her room than Ryan?"
So we use the same words and just rewrite them as a statement:
Melissa(subject) cleans(verb) her room 1 minute and 47 seconds longer than Ryan.
And that's it. Hope that helps!
