Headline Story
Fun with Algebra, #6
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Introduction
After students have had a chance to think about the strategies they might use to solve the problem, have them share their ideas.
Headline Story
Joelle loves riding horses. She weighs about 5 times as much as her favorite saddle and a tenth of what her horse weighs. If you know the total weight of Joelle, her saddle, and her horse, how can you find the weight of the saddle?
Possible student responses
- Joelle weighs 5 times as much as the saddle and the horse weighs ten times as much as she does, therefore the horse weighs 50 times what the saddle weighs.
- So the horse, Joelle, and the saddle together weigh 56 times what the saddle alone weighs (50 for the horse, 5 for Joelle, and 1 for the saddle itself).
- Divide the combined weight by 56 to get the weight of the saddle.
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