Jake has to descend 30 steps on 9 floors for a total of 9 * 30 = 270 steps. He descends 3 steps every second so he will descend 270 steps in 270 / 3 = 90 seconds. Austin will get down after only a minute (60 seconds) so Jake will get down 90 - 60 = 30 seconds later.
The answer: 30
Reverse engineering the question: Austin and Jake start descending from the 9th floor of a building at the same time. Austin uses the elevator and Jake uses the stairs, descending 3 steps every second. The stairs have 30 steps across each floor. If the elevator will take a minute to get to ground level, how many seconds later will Jake get to the ground floor?
Reasoning and answer: She has 2 dogs and it takes 20 minutes to groom just 1 dog so it takes her 2 * 20 = 40 minutes per day to groom 2 dogs. In 30 days, she will have spent 30 * 40 = 1,200 minutes grooming her dogs. There are 60 minutes in an hour so she spends 1200 / 60 = 20 hours grooming her dogs.
The answer: 20
What was the question?
Question: It takes Jennifer 20 minutes to groom each of her 2 long hair dachshunds. If she grooms her dogs every day, how many hours does she spend grooming her dogs in 30 days?
John bought 50 - 15 = 35 eBook readers. John has 35 - 3 = 32 eBook readers after losing some. Together they have 50 + 32 = 82 eBook readers.
The answer: 82
Reverse engineering the question: John and Anna bought some eBook readers. John bought 15 eBook readers less than Anna did. Unfortunately, John lost 3 eBook readers. If Anna bought 50 eBook readers, how many eBook readers do they have altogether?
Reasoning and answer: Let x represent the number of Oreos Jordan has. James:3 + 2x Oreos. Total:3 + 2x + x = 36. 3x + 3 = 36. 3x = 33. x = 11 Oreos.
The answer: 11
What was the question?
Question: James has 3 more than 2 times the number of Oreos Jordan has. If there are 36 Oreos total, how many does Jordan have?
Half of what Marco has is $24 / 2 = $12. If he gives Mary $12, she has $12 + $15 = $27. Now subtract the money Mary spends: $27 - $5 = $22. Now subtract Marco's money from Mary's remaining money, $22 - $12 = $10.
The answer: 10
Reverse engineering the question: Marco has $24. Mary has $15. If Marco gives Mary half of what he has, Mary will have more than Marco. But Mary spends $5. How much more money does Mary have than Marco?
The number of customers who were served coffee in the restaurant is 3 / 5 * 25 = 15. If the total number of customers who came to the restaurant was 25, then 25 - 15 = 10 customers did not buy coffee.
The answer: 10
Reverse engineering the question:
On a particular week, Fatima's restaurant served 25 people food and drinks, and 3/5 of that number came to buy coffee. How many people did not buy coffee in the restaurant?