Alex has not washed his clothes for a month; 18 shirts, 12 pants, 17 sweaters, and 13 jeans are waiting to be washed. Alex's washing machine can wash a maximum of 15 items per cycle. Each cycle takes 45 minutes. How many hours will it take the washing machine to wash all the clothes? Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. Alex will wash 18 + 12 + 17 + 13 = 60 items. With 20 items per wash cycle, Alex will wash the clothes in 60 / 15 = 4 cycles. With 45 minutes per cycle, the washing machine will take 45 * 4 = 180 minutes to wash the clothes. As 1 hour has 60 minutes, the washing machine will take 180 / 60 = 3 hours to wash the clothes.. The answer is: 3.

There are four members in one household. Each member consumes 3 slices of bread during breakfast and 2 slices of bread for snacks. A loaf of bread has 12 slices. How many days will five loaves of bread last in this family? Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. A total of 3 + 2 = 5 slices of bread are consumed by each member every day. So a family consumes a total of 5 x 4 = 20 slices of bread every day. Five loaves of bread have 5 x 12 = 60 slices of bread. Thus, the 5 loaves of bread last for 60 / 20 = 3 days.. The answer is: 3.

At his craftwork store, Howard has a collection of 70 wooden bowls where he rewards two to his customers for every 10 they buy. If he had 20 customers that day, half of whom bought 20 bowls each, calculate the number of bowls remaining in the rewards collection. Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. Half of the 20 customers, which is 1 / 2 * 20 = 10 bought 20 bowls each, receiving 2 for every 10. The total number of reward bowls each customer who bought 20 bowls received is 2 + 2 = 4. If 10 customers bought 20 bowls, Howard gave away 4 * 10 = 40 bowls as rewards. The total number of reward bowls that remained is 70 - 40 = 30.. The answer is: 30.