Tough Algebra Problems Solved!
1. The cost of petrol rises by 2 cents a liter. last week a man bought 20 liters at the old
price. This week he bought 10 liters at the new price. Altogether, the petrol costs $9.20.
What was the old price for 1 liter?
2. Teachers divided students into groups of 3. Each group of 3 wrote a
report that had 9 pictures in it. The students used 585 pictures
altogether. How many students were there in all?
3.Vera and Vikki are sisters. Vera is 4 years old and Vikki is 13 years
old. What age will each sister be when Vikki is twice as old as Vera?
4. A can do a work in 14 days and working together A and B can do the same
work in 10 days. In what time can B alone do the work?
5. 7 workers can make 210 pairs of cup in 6 days. How many workers are
required to make 450 pairs of cup in 10 days?
6. Ten years ago the ratio between the ages of Mohan and Suman was 3:5. 11
years hence it will be 11:16. What is the present age of Mohan?
7. The ratio of girls to boys in class is 9 to 7 and there are 80 students
in the class. How many girls are in the class?
8. One ounce of solution X contains only ingredients a and b in a ratio of
2:3. One ounce of solution Y contains only ingredients a and b in a ratio
of 1:2. If solution Z is created by mixing solutions X and Y in a ratio of
3:11, then 2520 ounces of solution Z contains how many ounces of a?
9. This week Bob puts gas in his truck when the tank was about half empty.
Five days later, bob puts gas again when the tank was about three fourths
full. If Bob Bought 24 gallons of gas, how many gallons does the tank hold?
10. A commercial airplane flying with a speed of 700 mi/h is detected 1000
miles away with a radar. Half an hour later an interceptor plane flying
with a speed of 800 mi/h is dispatched. How long will it take the
interceptor plane to meet with the other plane?
11. There are 40 pigs and chickens in a farmyard. Joseph counted 100 legs
in all. How many pigs and how many chickens are there?
12. The top of a box is a rectangle with a perimeter of 72 inches. If the
box is 8 inches high, what dimensions will give the maximum volume?
13. You are raising money for a charity. Someone made a fixed donation of
500. Then, you require each participant to make a pledge of 25 dollars.
What is the minimum amount of money raised if there are 224 participants.
14. The sum of two positive numbers is 4 and the sum of their squares is
28. What are the two numbers?
15. Flying against the jet stream, a jet travels 1880 mi in 4 hours. Flying
with the jet stream, the same jet travels 5820 mi in 6 hours. What is the
rate of the jet in still air and what is the rate of the jet stream?
16. Jenna and her friend, Khalil, are having a contest to see who can save
the most money. Jenna has already saved $110 and every week she saves an
additional $20. Khalil has already saved $80 and every week he saves an
additional $25. Let x represent the number of weeks and y represent the
total amount of money saved. Determine in how many weeks Jenna and Khalil
will have the same amount of money.
17. The sum of three consecutive terms of a geometric sequence is 104 and
their product is 13824.find the terms.
18. The sum of the first and last of four consecutive odd integers is
52. What are the four integers?
19. A health club charges a one-time initiation fee and a monthly fee.
John paid 100 dollars for 2 months of membership. However, Peter paid 200
for 6 months of membership. How much will Sylvia pay for 1 year of
membership?
20. The sum of two positive numbers is 4 and the sum of their cubes is 28.
What is the product of the two numbers?
21. A man selling computer parts realizes that when he sells 16 computer
parts, his earning is $1700. When he sells 56 computer parts, his earning
is $4300. What will the earning be if the man sells 30 computers parts?
22. A man has 15 coins in his pockets. These coins are dimes and quarters
that add up 2.4 dollars. How many quarters and how many dimes does the man
have?
23. The lengths of the sides of a triangle are in the ratio 4:3:5. Find the
lengths of the sides if the perimeter is 18 inches.
24. The ratio of base to height of a equilateral triangle is 3:4. If the
area of the triangle is 6, what is the perimeter of the triangle?
25. The percent return rate of a growth fund, income fund, and money market
are 10%, 7%, and 5% respectively. Suppose you have 3200 to invest and you
want to put twice as much in the growth fund as in the money market to
maximize your return. How should you invest to get a return of 250 dollars
in 1 year?
26. A shark was caught whose tail weighted 200 pounds. The head of the
shark weighted as much as its tail plus half its body. Its body weighted as
much as its head and tail. What is the weight of the shark?
27. The square root of a number plus two is the same as the number. What is
the number?
28. Suppose you have a coupon worth 6 dollars off any item at a mall. You
go to a store at the mall that offers a 20% discount. What do you need to
do to save the most money?
29. Suppose your grades on three math exams are 80, 93, and 91. What grade
do you need on your next exam to have at least a 90 average on the four
exams?
30. Peter has a photograph that is 5 inches wide and 6 inches long. She
enlarged each side by the same amount. By how much was the photograph
enlarged if the new area is 182 square inches?
31. The cost to produce a book is 1200 to get started plus 9 dollars per
book. The book sells for 15 dollars each. How many books must be sold to
make a profit?
32. Store A sells CDs for 2 dollars each if you pay a one-time fee of 104
dollars. Store B offers 12 free CDs and charges 10 dollars for each
additional CD. How many CD must you buy so it will cost the same under both
plans?
33. When 4 is added to two numbers, the ratio is 5:6. When 4 is subtracted
from the two numbers, the ratio is 1:2. Find the two numbers.
34. A store owner wants to sell 200 pounds of pistachios and walnuts mixed
together. Walnuts cost 4 dollars per pound and pistachio cost 6 dollars per
pounds. How many pounds of each type of nuts should be mixed if the store
owner will charge 5 dollars for the mixture?
35. A cereal box manufacturer makes 32-ounce boxes of cereal. In a perfect
world,the box will be 32-ounce every time is made. However, since the world
is not perfect, they allow a difference of 0.06 ounce. Find the range of
acceptable size for the cereal box.
36. A man weighing 600 kg has been losing 3.12% of his weight each month
with some heavy exercises and eating the right food. What will the man
weigh after 20 months?
37. An object is thrown into the air at a height of 60 feet. After 1 second
and 2 second, the object is 88 feet and 84 feet in the air respectively.
What is the initial speed of the object?
38. A transit is 200 feet from the base of a building. There is man
standing on top of the building. The angles of elevation from the top and
bottom of the man are 45 degrees and 44 degrees. What is the height of the
man?
39. A lemonade consists of 6% of lemon juice and a strawberry juice
consists of 15% pure fruit juice. How much of each kind should be mixed
together to get a 4 Liters of a 10% concentration of fruit juice?
40. Ellen can wash her car in 60 minutes. Her older sister Sarah can do the
same job in 45 minutes. How long will it take if they wash the car
together?
41. A plane flies 500 mi/h. The plane can travel 1100 miles with the wind
in the same amount of time as it travels 900 miles against the wind. What
is the speed of the wind?
42. A company produces boxes that are 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet
high. The company wants to increase each dimension by the same amount so
that the new volume is twice as big. How much is the increase in dimension?
43. James invested half of his money in land, a tenth in stock, and a
twentieth in saving bonds. Then, he put the remaining 21000 in a CD. How
much money did James saved or invested?
44. The motherboards for a desktop computer can be manufactured for 50
dollars each. The development cost is 250000. The first 20 motherboard are
samples and will not be sold. How many salable motherboards will yield an
average cost of 6325 dollars?
45. How much of a 70% orange juice drink must be mixed with 44 gallons of a
20% orange juice drink to obtain a mixture that is 50% orange juice?
46. A company sells nuts in bulk quantities. When bought in bulk, peanuts
sell for $1.20 per pound, almonds for $ 2.20 per pound, and cashews for
$3.20 per pound. Suppose a specialty shop wants a mixture of 280 pounds
that will cost $2.59 per pound. Find the number of pounds of each type of
nut if the sum of the number of pounds of almonds and cashews is three
times the number of pounds of peanuts. Round your answers to the nearest
pound.
47. A Basketball player has successfully made 36 of his last 48 free
throws. Find the number of consecutive free throws the player needs to
increase his success rate to 80%.
48. John can wash cars 3 times as fast as his son Erick. Working together,
they need to wash 30 cars in 6 hours. How many hours will it takes each of
them working alone?
49. In a college, about 36% of student are under 20 years old and 15% are
over 40 years old. What is the probability that a student chosen at random
is under 20 years old or over 40 years?
50. Twice a number plus the square root of the number is twelve minus the
square root of the number.
51. The light intensity, I , of a light bulb varies inversely as the square
of the distance from the bulb. A a distance of 3 meters from the bulb, I =
1.5 W/m^2 . What is the light intensity at a distance of 2 meters from the
bulb?
52. The lengths of two sides of a triangle are 2 and 6. find the range of
values for the possible lengths of the third side.
53. Find three consecutive integers such that one half of their sum is
between 15 and 21.
54. After you open a book, you notice that the product of the two page
numbers on the facing pages is 650. What are the two page numbers?
55. Suppose you start with a number. You multiply the number by 3, add 7,
divide by ½, subtract 5, and then divide by 12. The result is 5. What
number did you start with?
56. You have 156 feet of fencing to enclose a rectangular garden. You want
the garden to be 5 times as long as it is wide. Find the dimensions of the
garden.
57. The amount of water a dripping faucet wastes water varies directly with
the amount of time the faucet drips. If the faucet drips 2 cups of water
every 6 minutes, find out how long it will take the faucet to drip 10.6465
liters of water.
58. A washer costs 25% more than a dryer. If the store clerk gave a 10%
discount for the dryer and a 20% discount for the washer, how much is the
washer before the discount if you paid 1900 dollars.
59. Baking a tray of blueberry muffins takes 4 cups of milk and 3 cups of
wheat flour. A tray of pumpkin muffins takes 2 cups of milk and 3 cups of
wheat flour. A baker has 16 cups of milk and 15 cups of wheat flour. You
make 3 dollars profit per tray of blueberry muffins and 2 dollars profit
per tray of pumpkin muffins. How many trays of each type of muffins should
you make to maximize profit?
60. A company found that -2p + 1000 models the number of TVs sold per month
where p can be set as low as 200 or as high as 300. How can the company
maximize the revenue?
61. Your friends say that he has $2.40 in equal numbers of quarters, dimes,
and nickels. How many of each coin does he have?
62. I am a two-digit number whose digit in the tenth place is 1 less than
twice the digit in the ones place. When the digit in the tenth place is
divided by the digit in the ones place, The quotient is 1 and the remainder
is 4. What number am I?
63. A two-digit number is formed by randomly selecting from the digits 2,
4, 5, and 7 without replacement. What is the probability that a two-
digit number contains a 2 or a 7?
64. Suppose you interview 30 females and 20 males at your school to find
out who among them are using an electric toothbrush. Your survey revealed
that only 2 males use an electric toothbrush while 6 females use it. What
is the probability that a respondent did not use an electric toothbrush
given that the respondent is a female?
65. An employer pays 15 dollars per hour plus an extra 5 dollars per hour
for every hour worked beyond 8 hours up to a maximum daily wage of 220
dollars. Find a piecewise function that models this situation.
66. Divide me by 7, the remainder is 5. Divide me by 3, the remainder is 1
and my quotient is 2 less than 3 times my previous quotient. What number am
I?
67. A company making luggages have these requirements to follow. The
length is 15 inches greater than the depth and the sum of length, width,
and depth may not exceed 50 inches. What is the maximum value for the depth
if the manufacturer will only use whole numbers?
68. To make an open box, a man cuts equal squares from each corner of a
sheet of metal that is 12 inches wide and 16 inches long. Find an
expression for the volume in terms of x.
69. Ten candidates are running for president, vice-president, and secretary
in the students government. You may vote for as many as 3 candidates. In
how many ways can you vote for 3 or fewer candidates?
70. The half-life of a medication prescribed by a doctor is 6 hours. How
many mg of this medication is left after 78 hours if the doctor prescribed
100 mg?
71. Suppose you roll a red number cube and a yellow number cube. Find P(red
2, yellow 2) and the probability to get any matching pairs of numbers.
72. A movie theater in a small town usually open its doors 3 days in a row
and then closes the next day for maintenance. Another movie theater 3 miles
away open 4 days in a row and then closes the next day for the same reason.
Suppose both movie theaters are closed today and today is Wednesday, when
is the next time they will both be closed again on the same day?
73. An investor invests 5000 dollars at 10% and the rest at 5%. How much
was invested at 5% if the yield is one-fifth of the amount invested at at
10%?
74. 20000 students took a standardized math test. The scores on the test
are normally distributed, with a mean score of 85 and a standard deviation
of 5. About how many students scored between 90 and 95?
75. A satellite, located 2400 km above Earth’s surface, is in circular
orbit around the earth. If it takes the satellite 3 hours to complete 1
orbit, how far is the satellite after 1 hour?
76. In a group of 10 people, what is the probability that at least two
people in the group have the same birthday?
77. During a fundraising for cancer at a gala, everybody shakes hands with
everyone else in the room before the event and after the event is
finished. If n people attended the gala, how many different handshakes
occur?
78. Two cubes have side lengths that are equal to 2x and 4x. How many
times greater than the surface of the small cube is the surface area of
the large cube?
79. Suppose you have a job in a restaurant that pays $8 per hour. You also
have a job at Walmart that pays $10 per hour. You want to earn at least 200
per week. However, you want to work no more than 25 hours per week . Show 3
different ways you could work at each job.
80. Two company offer tutoring services. Company A realizes that when they
tutor for 3 hours, they make 45 dollars. When they tutor for 7 hours they
make 105 hours. Company B realizes that when they tutor for 2 hours, they
make 34 dollars. When they tutor for 6 hours they make 102 hours. Assuming
that the number of hours students sign for tutoring is the same for both
company, which company will generate more revenue?
81. You want to fence a rectangular area for kids in the backyard. To save
on fences, you will use the back of your house as one of the four sides.
Find the possible dimensions if the house is 60 feet wide and you want to
use at least 160 feet of fencing.
82. When a number in increased by 20%, the result is the same when it is
decreased by 10% plus 12. What is the number?
83. The average of three numbers is 47. The biggest number is five more
than twice the smallest. The range is 35. What are the three numbers?
84. The percent of increase of a number from its original amount to 36 is
80%. What is the original amount of the number?
85. When Peter drives to work, he averages 45 miles per hour because of
traffic. On the way back home, he averages 60 miles per hour because
traffic is not as bad. The total travel time is 2 hours. How far is Peter’s
house from work?
86. An advertising company takes 20% from all revenue that it generates for
its affiliates. If the affiliates were paid 15200 dollars this month, how
much revenue did the advertising company generate this month?
87. A company’s revenue can be modeled with a quadratic equation. The
company noticed that when they sell either 2 or or 12 items, the revenue is
0. How much is the revenue when they sell 20 items?
88. A ball bounced 4 times, reaching three-fourths of its previous height
with each bounce. After the fourth bounce, the ball reached a height of 25
cm. How high was the ball when it was dropped?
89. A rental company charges 40 dollars per day plus $0.30 per mile. You
rent a car and drop it off 4 days later. How many miles did you drive the
car if you paid 325.5 dollars which included a 5% sales tax?
90. Two students leave school at the same time and travel in opposite
directions along the same road. One walk at a rate of 3 mi/h. The other
bikes at a rate of 8.5 mi/h. After how long will they be 23 miles part?
91. Brown has the same number of brothers as sisters. His sister Sylvia as
twice as many brothers as sisters. How many children are in the family?
92. Ethan has the same number of male classmates as female classmates. His
classmate Olivia has three-fourths as many female classmates as male
classmates. How many students are in the class?
93. Noah wants to share a certain amount of money with 10 people. However,
at the last minute, he is thinking about decreasing the amount by 20 so he
can keep 20 for himself and share the money with only 5 people. How much
money is Noah trying to share if each person still gets the same amount?
94. The square root of me plus the square root of me is me. Who am I?
95. A cash drawer contains 160 bills, all 10s and 50s. If the total value
of the 10s and 50s is $1,760. How many of each type of bill are in the
drawer?
96. You want to make 28 grams of protein snack mix made with peanuts and
granola. Peanuts contain 7 grams of protein per ounce and granola contain 3
grams of protein per ounce. How many ounces of granola should you use for 1
ounce of peanuts?
97. The length of a rectangular prism is quadrupled, the width is doubled,
and the height is cut in half. If V is the volume of the rectangular prism
before the modification, express the volume after the modification in terms
of V.
98. A car rental has CD players in 85% of its cars. The CD players are
randomly distributed throughout the fleet of cars. If a person rents 4
cars, what is the probability that at least 3 of them will have CD players?
99. Jacob’s hourly wage is 4 times as much as Noah. When Jacob got a raise
of 2 dollars, Noah accepted a new position that pays him 2 dollars less per
hour. Jacob now earns 5 times as much money as Noah. How much money do they
make per hour after Jacob got the raise?
100.
You own a catering business that makes specialty cakes. Your company has
decided to create three types of cakes. To create these cakes, it takes a
team that consists of a decorator, a baker, and a design consultant. Cake A
takes the decorator 9 hours, the baker 6 hours, and the design consultant 1
hour to complete. Cake B takes the decorator 10 hours, the baker 4 hours,
and the design consultant 2 hours. Cake C takes the decorator 12 hours, the
baker 4 hour, and the design consultant 1 hour. Without hiring additional
employees, there are 398 decorator hours available, 164 baker hours
available, and 58 design consultant hours available. How many of each type
of cake can be created?
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