1.9: Multiplication Problems

Multiplication problems usually give information for one unit and ask for information for many units. For example, you may be given an average distance for one hour and asked for a distance for six hours. You may be given the price for one item and asked for the price of 96 items.

Remember that multiplication is the fast addition of equal amounts. Keywords for addition may also point to multiplication.

Keywords pointing to multiplication include:

  • altogether
  • combined
  • in all
  • total
  • the average is
  • product
  • how many
  • how much
  • each

Exercise 1

Do these problems by following the five problem-solving steps. Remember to circle the information and underline what is being asked. Be sure to write down your estimation before you find the actual solution. Check your work using the answer key at the end of the exercise.

  1. Maria spent $151 a month to ride to work. How much did it cost her to ride to work for the whole year? (1 year = 12 months)
  2. Fred travels 121 km a day on his delivery route. How far does he travel in 5 working days?
  3. Manuel buys 340 L of gas a month. In 6 months, how many litres of gas does Manual buy?
  4. An apartment building has 16 apartments, each rented for $870 a month. What is the total monthly rental income from this building?
  5. A farmer sells potatoes at $53 per 50 kg sack. How much will he get for 75 sacks?
  6. Bob gets paid $12 per hour. If he worked 39 hours last week and 24 hours this week, how much did he earn for the two weeks? (two operations)
  7. It costs $35260 per working day to run the factory. How much does it cost to run this factory for a month of 23 working days?
  8. The train has an average speed of 75 km an hour. How far does this train travel in 14 hours?
  9. Lee’s sports car averages 18 km per litre. How far can she drive on 12 L of gasoline?
  10. Frank bought a used car and paid for it over 15 months. He made 15 monthly payments of $325 each. How much did he pay?

Exercise 1 Answers

  1. $1812
  2. 605 km
  3. 2040 L
  4. $13920
  5. $3975
  6. 63hours, $756
  7. $810, 980
  8. 1050 km
  9. 216 km
  10. $4875

1.9: Practice Answers

  1. Solve these problems. Show all your work.
    1. A freight train has 70 cars. Each car can hold 22680 kilograms of cargo. How much cargo can the train hold in all?
    2. The highway distance between Fernie and Edmonton is 621 kilometres. How many kilometres will a bus travel in 68 trips from Fernie to Edmonton?
    3. A tanker truck made 275 trips in one year. The truck hauled 23 800 litres each time. How many litres did the truck haul during the year?
    4. The college cafeteria hopes to serve 425 people each day. Estimate how many meals will be served if the cafeteria is open for 175 days.

1.9: Practice Answers

  1. Solve these problems. Show all your work.
    1. 1587600 kilograms
    2. 42228 kilometres
    3. 6545500 litres
    4. [latex]400\times200=80\,000 \text{ meals}[/latex]

Attribution

This chapter has been adapted from Topic D: Multiplication Problems in Adult Literacy Fundamental Mathematics: Book 3 – 2nd Edition (BCcampus) by Wendy Tagami and Liz Girard (2023), which is under a CC BY 4.0 license.

License

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Intermediate PreAlgebra: Building Success Copyright © 2024 by Kim Tamblyn, TRU Open Press is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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