Unitary Method Problem
Date: 02/01/99 at 19:13:36 From: Tamara Subject: A Unitary Method Problem Runts come in a carton. There are 8 packages in one carton. There are 3 boxes in each package. If there are 170 runts in one box, how many runts are there in 6 cartons?
Date: 03/01/99 at 17:48:36 From: Doctor Swiss Subject: Re: A Unitary Method Problem This can be a difficult question to take in all at once. The best way to approach it is to break it down into steps. The first step is to notice how runts, boxes, packages, and cartons are related. It might help to draw a diagram, like this one: 170 runts/box --> 3 boxes/package --> 8 packages/carton --> 6 cartons Just so you know, by runt/box, we mean runts in a box. Now you can see how everything is related, and you can also see the steps that you have to take. Now to find out the number of runts in 6 cartons, it would help us to see how many packages are in 6 cartons. Why? Well, once we know the number of packages in 6 cartons, we can find out the number of boxes in 6 cartons, and finally the number of runts in 6 cartons. So now we are trying to find the number of packages in 6 cartons. We know the number of packages on 1 carton is 8. What if we had 2 cartons? Then we would have 8 cartons from the first package and 8 from the second, for a total of 8 + 8 = 16. Note that this is also 8 * 2 = 16 cartons. Try this for 3 cartons. I hope you can see the jump and figure out that there are 8 * 6 packages in 6 cartons. You can repeat this process to find that there are 3 * 8 * 6 boxes in 6 cartons. You need one more step to find the number of runts in 6 cartons. It turns out that this problem is just one big multiplication problem. Please write back if you need more help or have any more questions. Good luck, - Doctors Swiss, Teeple, and Stacey, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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