Widgets
By: Jaanvi
Problem:
A factory produces 10 widgets per second. How many hours does it take the factory to produce 90,000 widgets?
First step to solving the problem:
To start, I did some mental math. The problem says that the factory produced 10 widgets per second, right? In order for the factory to produce 90,000 widgets it will take 9,000 seconds. I got that by dividing 90,000 by 10.
Second step to solving the problem
Now that you know how many seconds it takes to produce the enormous amount of widgets that we're dealing with, we can get to one of the last parts of the problem. You divide 9,000 by 60. Why? Because there are 60 seconds in a minute and 9,000 is the amount of seconds that it might take. Since I can't write a division problem with numbers here, I'll try my best to explain. So, 60 goes into 90 once, put a one at the top and subtract 60 from 90, you should get 30. Bring the zero down and you have 300. I worked out the multiplication and I got that 60 goes into 300 five times. So, 300 - 300 =0 and there's one zero left. You can basically juts add it to the back of your quotient and you get 150. That's the amount of minutes that 9,000 seconds add up to.
Third step to solving the problem
Now we know the amount of minutes, but the question is asking for the amount of hours that it takes, not minutes. You can actually divide 150 by 60, but I did it in my head. Hopefully everyone knows 6 times 2 is 12 and to do 60 times 2 you just add a zero to the back of the number. You are supposed to get 120 and 150 - 120 = 30. Got 2 hours and 30 minutes? You're correct. Or are you?
The answer
Just to make the answer more clear, I'll write it down on a seperate line;
The answer is that it will take the factory 2 hours and 30 minutes to produce 90,000 widgets.