Not all mathematics questions come in the form of an equation. Sometimes we are presented with a real world problem and we want to translate the words into mathematics, so that we can solve the problem
Part of solving word problems comes from understanding the information we are given by reading it carefully, and correctly deciding which mathematical operations to perform. In this lesson we will look at how to turn word problems into a mathematical statement.
Following on from writing mathematical statements with whole numbers , we can see that the arithmetic operations we use can be expressed with words.
On Grace's farm, there are 6 cows and 9 goats. How many animals are there altogether?
I scored 7 goals in my netball match. Eileen scored twice as many as me. How many goals did Eileen score?
The number of motor accidents at a particular intersection was reported by traffic police to be 45 last year. The local council then decided to put up warning signs for motorists approaching this intersection. The following year the police reported only 29 accidents there.
How many fewer accidents were there after the signs were introduced?
To help determine what arithmetic operations should be used to solve a problem, we should look for key words that correspond to the basic operations.