Question: Mark and his sister Chris both leave their house for school at the same time. Mark travels at the same speed as Chris, who walks 3 miles per hour. After walking 3 miles Mark has to turn around and go home because he forgot his lunch. If the distance from their house to the school is 9 miles, how much longer does Mark spend walking than Chris?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: First find the total number of miles Mark walks to get his lunch by multiplying the distance he walks back to the house by 2: 3 miles * 2 = 6 miles. Then find the total distance Mark walks by adding that distance to the distance between the house and the school: 6 miles + 9 miles = 15 miles. Now divide the total distance Mark walks by his speed to find how many hours he spends walking: 15 miles / 3 miles / hour = 5 hours. Now divide the total distance Chris walks by her speed to find the total time she spends walking: 9 miles / 3 miles / hour = 3 hours. Now subtract the time Chris spends walking from the time Mark spends walking to find the difference: 5 hours - 3 hours = 2.
So the answer is 2.

Question: Miriam currently has 30 marbles, but she used to have more. Miriam gave her brother 60 marbles, gave her sister twice that amount and gave her friend Savanna three times the amount she currently has. How many marbles did Miriam start with?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: If Mariam remains with 30 marbles after giving her brother 60 marbles, she had 30 + 60 = 90 marbles. Mariam's sister receives twice as many marbles as her brother, a total of 2 * 60 = 120 marbles. The total number of marbles before giving any to her brother or sister is 120 + 90 = 210. Savannah is to receive three times as many marbles as Mariam has to remain with, a total of 3 * 30 = 90 marbles. Before giving out any marble, Mariam has 210 + 90 = 300 marbles.
So the answer is 300.

Question: Porter is a painter who creates beautiful paintings of wild animals. Most recently, he painted a mural of a pack of wolves standing on a snowy-white mountainside underneath a full moon. He put the painting up for auction and it sold for $1000 less than five times more than he had made on his previous painting. If he received $44,000 for the sale of his most recent painting, how much, in dollars, did he make for selling his previous painting?
Answer with step-by-step thinking:
If $44,000 is $1000 less than five times more than he had made on his previous painting, then $44,000 + $1000 = $45,000 is five times what he made on his previous painting. If $45,000 is five times what he made for his previous painting, then he made $45,000 / 5 = $9,000 for selling his previous painting.
So the answer is 9000.