user: [Question]Diego baked 12 cakes for his sister's birthday. Donald also baked 4 cakes, but ate 1 while waiting for the party to start. How many cakes are left?
[Answer]The total number of cakes baked is 12 + 4 = 16 cakes. But since Diego ate 1 cake, there are 16 - 1 = 15 cakes left. The answer is 15.
Q: Cersei bought 50 cotton candies. She gave her brother and sister 5 cotton candies each, then gave the remaining one-fourth of them to her cousin. If she ate 12 cotton candies, how many cotton candies are left?
A: Cersei gave a total of 5 x 2 = 10 cotton candies to her brother and sister. So, the total cotton candies left were 50 - 10 = 40. And she gave 1 / 4 x 40 = 10 cotton candies to her cousin. So, the total number of cotton candies left was 40 - 10 = 30. Therefore, the total number of cotton candies left after she ate 12 of them is 30 - 12 = 18. The answer is 18.
Question: Eunice spent $7500 on a used car, which is 25% less than the original price. What was the original price of the car?
Answer: The price $7500 is 100% - 25% = 75% of the original price. So, every 1% is equal to $7500 / 75% = $100. Hence, the original price is equal to $100 / 1% x 100% = $10000. The answer is 10000.
[Question]Jenny and Mark are throwing bottle caps. Jenny's bottlecap flies 18 feet straight, then bounces off a street light and flies another 1/3 of the distance it already went. Mark's bottle cap flies 15 feet forward, then bounces off a window and flies twice as far as it already did. How much further did Mark's bottle cap go than Jenny's?
[Answer]First find 1 / 3 of the distance Jenny's bottlecap went straight: 18 feet / 3 = 6 feet. Then add that to the distance it flew straight to find the total distance it traveled: 6 feet + 18 feet = 24 feet. Then find twice the distance Mark's bottlecap went straight: 15 feet * 2 = 30 feet. Then add that distance to the distance it flew straight to find the total distance it traveled: 30 feet + 15 feet = 45 feet. Then subtract the distance Jenny's bottlecap traveled from the distance Mark's traveled to find the difference: 45 feet - 24 feet = 21 feet. The answer is 21.
Q: Kim is an office manager. Every morning she spends 5 minutes making coffee, 2 minutes per employee getting a status update, and 3 minutes per employee updating payroll records. If there are 9 employees in the office, how long does Kim's morning routine take?
A: First find how many minutes Kim spends on each employee: 2 minutes / employee + 3 minutes / employee = 5 minutes / employee. Then multiply that time by the number of employees to find the total time spent on status and payroll updates: 5 minutes / employee * 9 employees = 45 minutes. Finally, add that time to the time spent making coffee to find the total time: 45 minutes + 5 minutes = 50 minutes. The answer is 50.
Question: Matthew, Patrick and Alvin are eating dinner together. Matthew eats three times as many egg rolls as Patrick eats. Patrick eats half as many egg rolls as Alvin eats. If Alvin ate 4 egg rolls, how many did Matthew eat?
Answer:

assistant: Patrick eats 1 / 2 of the 4 egg rolls that Alvin eats, 1 / 2 x 4 = 2 egg rolls. Matthew eats 3x as many egg rolls as Patrick eats, 3 x 2 = 6 egg rolls that Matthew eats. The answer is 6.