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Hi all,

This seems like a relatively easy problem, but for the life of me my son and husband and I can't figure it out. Can anyone offer assistance?

Mrs. Klein made some tarts. She sold 3/5 of them in the morning and 1/4 of the remainder in the afternoon. IF she sold 200 more tarts in the morning than in the afternoon, how many tarts did she make?

Thanks.

deltagal,

It seems like it should be easy, however it isn't! There is some serious thinking going on with this one.

Think 1/5 = 1 part. Since 3/5 of the tarts were sold in the morning, 3 parts of 5 were sold in the morning. Draw a bar with 5 equal parts.

Now, 1/4 of the remaining 2 parts were sold in the afternoon. Divide the final 2 bars into 4 parts to show 1/4 of the final two parts that were sold in the afternoon.

Now, to compare afternoon to morning, divide the other 3 bars into half (like the final two bars), making 10 bars total.

Next, think 6 parts were sold in the morning (3/5 = 6/10) and 1 part was sold in the afternoon. Comparing the 6 parts sold in the morning to the 1 part sold in the afternoon, 5 more parts were sold in the morning than in the afternoon. Those 5 parts were 200 more total tarts than those sold in the afternoon. So, divide 200 by 5 parts to find that each of the 5 parts = 40 tarts each.

Now, with each of the 10 parts in the total number of tarts being worth 40, all of the tarts totaled together would be 400.

I had to work on that one awhile myself this afternoon. Hope that helps!

If you don't happen to have the Home Instructor's guide for 5A/5B, you may wish to consider it. We do highly recommend them for reference only at levels 5A and above, and they're on our website. Just a thought if you run into more challenges.

Blessings,
Carrie

Oh my.....looks like I'll be flunking math by 5th grade.

Carrie wrote:
If you don't happen to have the Home Instructor's guide for 5A/5B, you may wish to consider it. We do highly recommend them for reference only at levels 5A and above, and they're on our website. Just a thought if you run into more challenges.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

Oh, good grief my husband and son are going to be so annoyed with themselves when I show them this solution. We LOVE working with the bar graphs, but I think we just kept missing the statement "1/4 of the remainder." Our of curiosity, Carrie, can you or anyone else show me another method to solve this that doesn't involve the bar graphs. We've become a bit dependant on them ; )

I have the HIG, but it doesn't have the steps for solving the workbook problems in it...does it?! If so, where?

deltagal,

I dug out the Home Instructor's Guide for 5A to see if it has the solutions somewhere for the workbook. I finally found them in the back of the 5A Home Instructor's Manual.

There's some serious algebraic thinking going on with that problem, which I'm sure could be solved using 'x' and 'y', but my algebra is a bit rusty. So, my solution reflects Singapore's methodology.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

deltagal wrote:can you or anyone else show me another method to solve this that doesn't involve the bar graphs. We've become a bit dependant on them ; )

Since you figured out 3/5 = 6/10 and 2/5 of 1/4 = 1/10 then algebraically you would proceed:
6/10n = 1/10n + 200 (n= tarts made) following the rules of algebra.....isolate n
6/10n -1/10n = 200
5/10n = 200 (simplify)
1/2n = 200
n= 400

I don't know... Does that help or does it need more words?

However, I see nothing wrong with a dependency on "pictures". If all else fails - draw a picture. Then again, I am a visual learner!

annaz,

Just so you don't panic, Singapore's 5A is not equivalent to 5th grade math. The thinking within it is actually a closer reflection to pre-algebra. Also, so the rest of you Singpaore users don't panic, Singapore eases you into their way of thinking throughout 4A on up. Once we got to 4A, we found it VERY important to go over the textbook lesson with our son, so he got the thinking behind the math. Then, it does build very well incrementally to prepare you for what's to come in 5A on up. There are just fewer problems of a higher level, when compared to other math programs. Since their aren't so many problems, it isn't so overwhelming to really exercise your mental muscles while trying to solve the problem!

Blessings,
Carrie

I dug out the Home Instructor's Guide for 5A to see if it has the solutions somewhere for the workbook. I finally found them in the back of the 5A Home Instructor's Manual.

Hallelujah! I was starting to wonder what the value of the HIG was, since my challenges are solving the workbook problems! Thank you, Carrie. THIS is a BIG help!

Had no idea examples for workbook were in back of hig. Thank you!!

At what level does HOD recommend the instructor's manual? I think I missed that somewhere. I was panicking at the beginning of the thread, but now I am not so much - I think

We carry the HIG starting at 5A on up and recommend them in a reference only capacity, meaning you refer to them only when you are stuck. We didn't have to refer to the HIG often at our house but did find them helpful several times from 5B through 6B. You can purchase them in our HOD Store.

Blessings,
Carrie