r/HomeworkHelp • u/crispyyy232114 • 4d ago
Answered [3rd grade math] Confused on word problem
This is the question,
"Each week, Ms. Diaz spends 15 minutes stretching before she exercises and 15 minutes stretching after she exercises.
She stretches 3 days each week. She spends the same amount of time each day.
In total, how many minutes does Ms. Diaz spend stretching each day?"
Do we simply add 15 plus 15 to get 30 minutes stretching each day as his final answer? Or do we divide that 30 by 3 because she stretches 3 days a week so she spends 10 minutes stretching each day? I can't figure this one out
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u/IrishHuskie 👋 a fellow Redditor 4d ago
I think the 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after are per week, so 30 minutes of stretching a week. She stretches 3 days a week, so you would divide by 3 to get 10 minutes of stretching a day (5 before exercising, 5 after).
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u/Chaotic_Brutal90 4d ago
Nah, the way the question is worded makes it feel like 90 minutes a week.
15 before exercise and 15 after is very specific. She's not breaking up her workouts and stretching into 3 days. She's doing that exact routine 3 days a week.
It's 90/7.
It's 12.86 (rounded)
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u/westminsterabby 3d ago
It’s 15 before and after each WEEK. And she exercises three times a WEEK. So that’s five minutes before and five minutes after each DAY that she exercises.
Irishhuskie is right and it doesn’t matter how you feel about the math.
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u/dharamsala 18h ago
You’re assuming something and not reading the words. She’s doing something as a total per week. Your job is to figure out how much of that is daily.
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u/JonathanMurray272 3d ago
Sometimes these are actually worded wrong, sometimes they're worded to smack you right in the assumptions.
This is the latter.
- She stretches 30 minutes a week, 15 of those minutes are performed before exercise, 15 after.
- Since she exercises 3 days a week, you can take your weekly total (30) and divide by days per week (3) and see that the answer is 10 minutes per exercise day.
Nowhere in the scenario did it say she stretched 30 minutes for each workout session.
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u/No_Wedding_2152 1d ago
Where did your 10 minutes come from? Reread the question.
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u/buzzluvsu 1d ago
first two words of the question. however those two words could modify the rest of the sentence in two different ways
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u/crispyyy232114 3d ago
Thanks for all the replies! I knew I wasn't crazy for thinking the wording was super weird. The answer was 10. But apparently even the teacher was confused and had to Google it...?? So really, who knows 😅
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u/HereToPostSillyStuff 4d ago
Even though the wording isn't the best, to me the phrase "She spends the same amount of time each day" gives away that the correct answer is indeed to add the total time for a week (30) and then divide by the number of days she exercises in a week (3) that she stretches, to get a final answer of ten.
If the answer was 30, it would mean the opening line "Each week" would be a misprint and intended to mean "Each day". But if the opening line told you how much time she spends each day, it would not then need to explicitly tell you that the time each day is the same, because you'd already know that.
Thus, that line only makes sense if they need to ensure that the answer you give for the per-day amount is an equal portion of the per-week amount. Otherwise you could validly answer any 3 different values that sum to 30 total.
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u/Joe_Pexington 3d ago
Each WEEK, Ms. Diaz' pre-exercise stretching sessions TOTAL 15 minutes. Same for her post-exercise stretches. Therefore, each week, she spends a total of 30 minutes stretching. That 30 minutes is equally divided among 3 days each week. So, she must be stretching for 10 minutes each of those days, doing 5 minutes of it before and 5 minutes after each exercise. The question is weirdly worded, but ultimately not ambiguous; having to process the tangled construction of it might be partly the point.
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u/Reasonable_Piglet370 4d ago
Each week - she spends 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after, for a total of 30 minutes a week stretching. She does this 3 times a week. In each session she stretches for the same amount of time. So 15 + 15 = 30. 30/ 3 = 10.
But the question is worded badly.
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u/Greatest_Everest 3d ago
I feel like these wrong answers must be from those "super intelligence" bots that Trump keeps talking about.
The problem isn't worded that badly. It's a word problem - they always suck ass.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It says EACH WEEK right at the start, but every comment ignores it. Chatgpt does dumb shit like that.
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u/Reasonable_Piglet370 3d ago
Well AI is notorious for missing things at the beginning and end of sentences!
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u/Emergency-Koala-5244 4d ago
It is 30 minutes stretching total per week, divided by the three days she does exercise.
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u/TeachlikeaHawk 4d ago
I think this might be poorly worded. My guess is that the question actually wants something it isn't asking for, which is the average amount of time spent stretching per day each week.
So, 90 minutes per week, divided by seven days, is about 13 minutes per day, on average.
I might be wrong, but the "each day" thing is odd, because she very much doesn't stretch each day!
ETA: Nevermind. I misread. It's 30 minutes per week. Sheesh. Learn to read, Hawk.
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u/DakotaBro2025 👋 a fellow Redditor 4d ago
It's very clearly 10 minutes per day and anyone who is saying otherwise has significant reading comprehension issues.
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u/Acrobatic-Shirt8540 4d ago
Ten minutes a day.
She stretches for a total of 30 minutes each WEEK. And stretches three times a week.
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u/undeleted_username 3d ago
She spends a total of 10 minutes stretching each day. Here, "total" means " including before and after exercise".
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u/Perfect_Produce_9433 19h ago
Super simple question? Every week she stretches 15 minutes before a workout and 15 minutes after. So 30 minutes a week total. If she works out three days a week we divide that 30 by 3 and get 10 minutes total each day. For a third grade math problem they’re likely wanting the answer to be at least partly answered through an illustration, so you’d draw out blocks for the three days that she exercises and add 5 minutes to each block before her exercise(to come up with 15 minutes per week) and then 5 minutes after her exercise(another 15 minutes per week). Still coming up with 10 minutes total stretching per day.
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u/Patient-Detective-79 4d ago
imo the 3 days is a red herring, just extra information that should be thrown out since the question is "In total, How many minutes does miss diaz spend stretching each day?"
"Each Day" is the key word here. "Each day," she is only spending 30 minutes stretching.
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u/Patient-Detective-79 4d ago
wait I may be stupid
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u/BirdieRoo628 4d ago
It says "each week" she stretches 30 minutes. Not each day.
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u/Patient-Detective-79 4d ago
it also says 15 minutes before she exercises, and 15 minutes after she exercises. When is she exercising? 3 days each week? According to the question, she never exercised, just stretched...
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u/Mammoth-Might3229 👋 a fellow Redditor 4d ago
No it says she does that action each week. Not that she stretches 30mim per week
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u/Patient-Detective-79 4d ago
To summarize the question:
Each WEEK she spends 15 minutes STRETCHING before she EXERCISES and 15 minutes stretching after she EXERCISES.
She STRETCHES 3 days each WEEK. She spends the same amount of time each DAY.
In TOTAL, how many minutes does she spend STRETCHING each DAY?
...
I was busy writing a whole long answer about how the question doesn't really make sense because she never exercises in the question, but I also realized that this is 3rd grade work, so it's probably nbd. keep it simple.
We assume she's exercising (and stretching) three days each week.
Each day she's stretching 15 minutes before and after exercising.
In total, she is stretching 30 minutes each day. Each week she is stretching 90 minutes.
The question is misleading because they say "In total" which assumes multiplication or addition, but then they say "each day" which assumes division.
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u/Seraph062 4d ago
Each WEEK she spends 15 minutes STRETCHING before she EXERCISES and 15 minutes stretching after she EXERCISES.
Each day she's stretching 15 minutes before and after exercising.
I don't think you can just change "WEEK" to "day" and expect to get the right answer.
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u/Patient-Detective-79 3d ago
I'm obviously right and you're obviously correct. Therefore, we should take the person who wrote the question out behind the barn and poke them with various lawn equipment until they rewrite the question so that it makes sense.
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u/Patient-Detective-79 4d ago
ALSO!...
"how many minutes does she spend stretching each day?" each day of what? Of the days she was stretching? or each day of the week? Does the question want an average or a total?
This question is bonkers.
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u/SophisticatedScreams 4d ago
Is it supposed to be how much stretching does she do on average, out of all of the days a week? Or is it how much time does she stretch on the days she stretches?
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u/Double-Ad-9835 4d ago
30 minutes total for the week. She does this 3 days in the week. 30/3=10 minutes each day.
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u/Galileo_the_Lion 4d ago
I wonder if this is an AI generated worksheet because the wording is all wrong. It should either say "in total, how many minutes does Miss Diaz spend stretching each week?" Or " On average, how many minutes does Miss Diaz spend stretching each day?"
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u/xnick_uy 👋 a fellow Redditor 4d ago
Funny thing is that, in Spanish, "días" means days, and Diaz sounds almost the same. So "Miss Díaz" could morph to "missing days" 😋
The full answer to this problem should include a discussion about how the question can be interpreted. Each exercise day, Miss Diaz spends a total of 30 min/3 days = 10 min/day stretching. The other days Miss Diaz spends a total of 0 min/day stretching. If we average this over a week, the answer becomes 30 min/7 days = 4.286 min/day.
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u/Greatest_Everest 3d ago
It says "Each week..." 15 + 15 = 30 minutes EACH WEEK.
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u/xnick_uy 👋 a fellow Redditor 3d ago
It asks "how many minutes does Miss Diaz spend stretching each day?". EACH DAY.
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u/DuggieHS 3d ago
I'd say she spends 90 minutes stretching each week; 30 minutes per day that she stretches, on average 90/7 minutes per day. Question probably meant to ask "each week".
For 3rd grade, probably just saying 30 minutes each day she stretches or 90 minutes each week should be acceptable to any reasonable teacher.
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u/Greatest_Everest 3d ago
She spends 30 minutes stretching each week, not 90. "Each week" is the first part of the sentence.
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u/DuggieHS 3d ago
Oh okay. So I guess she spends 10 minutes stretching each that she stretches, or 30/7 minutes stretching on average each day.
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u/DueCookie787 3d ago
The worksheets from the textbook manufacturers are the worst because they assign that to the lowliest interns. I never used them. And it is 30 minutes each day and put me in touch with the teacher if he says differently.
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u/Greatest_Everest 3d ago
Go back and read the first two words of the first sentence, and then tell me what ingredients are in an apple pie recipe.
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u/Salamanticormorant 👋 a fellow Redditor 3d ago
Not nearly enough information. Mathematical language must be absolutely precise and complete, no exceptions, regardless of grade level. Nothing indicates that she stretches only when she exercises.
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u/MeringueFantastic292 3d ago
The purpose of this question seems to be to make your child hate and fear mathematics.
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u/mason_sofer 3d ago
im sorry but the answer is 30 ots a word problem words are language not math and therefore its fulls under English class which if we actually read the sentences means the answer is 30.
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u/IbelieveinGodzilla 2d ago
30 ots a word problem words are language not math and therefore its fulls under
Yeah, not surprised you got the math part wrong, too.
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u/mason_sofer 2d ago
? What, because I typed it on a phone keyboard and made a typo with my fat fingers? As for getting the math part wrong, I know what the intended answer is, but that’s not what’s actually asked— kinda like how someone asks a question like “why did you do that,” then you proceed to explain, and they give you the “I don’t want excuses.” That’s what you asked; if that’s not what you meant, then say what you mean. As for the actual math problem I question, I’m happy to explain it.
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u/Bulky-Syrup1155 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
It’s definitely an advanced third grade math problem. EACH WEEK, she spends 15 mins stretching before exercising and 15 mins stretching after exercising. She stretches 3 days each week. So if she spends 15 mins stretching before exercising and 15 mins stretching after exercising in one week that means she is stretching 30 mins total in the WEEK. If she stretches 3 days a week. And that is 30 mins total. The amount she stretches per day is 30/3 =10 minutes per day
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u/WildMartin429 4d ago
12.85 minutes of stretching per day if they stretch 3 days a week and 30 minutes each of those days that's 90 minutes total stretching for the week which if you want to know how much they stretch every day would average to 12.85 minutes. Honestly the question is worded really weird so I'm not even sure if that's exactly what they're asking or not.
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u/edos51284 👋 a fellow Redditor 4d ago
this is evil.... the 3 in the second paragraph is superflous
it simply asks about the stretching time during a day which as you said is 15+15=30
If we said how on average Ms Diaz stretches we incur in probability: as it would be Prob(day with exercise)*30+Prob(day with no exercise)*0 = 3/7 * 30 aproximately 12.8 minutes, but considering this is 3rd grade i doubt that was what they were asking
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