Algebra Honors (Period 6 & 7)

Problems Without Solutions 4-10

Not all word problems have solutions. We listed three of the reasons for this:
1) Not Enough Information ( NEI)
2) Unrealistic Results
3) Facts are contradictory

We used the following examples:
Aurenne drove at her normal speed for the first 2 hours of the trip--- but the road repairs slowed her down 10 mph slower than her normal speed. She made the trip in 3 hours. Find her normal speed.
Wait... just looking at this you realize you just dont have enough information.
We even made a chart with the information we had.. and it just was not enough

There is NO SOLUTION Not enough information or NEI

Liam has a beautiful lawn that is 8 m longer than it is wide... and it is surrounded by a wonderful flower bed which he and his brother maintain for his mother The flower bed is 5m wide all around. Find the dimensions of the lawn if the area of the flower bed is 140m²

When you try to solve this problem by letting the dimensions of the lawn be w and w + 8 you find the following equation
(w + 10)(w + 18) - (w)(w +8) = 140
however that leads us to
w = -2
Since the width of the lawn cannot be negative,
There is No SOLUTION and the given facts are unrealistic.


Drehan says he has equal number of dimes and quarters but that he has 3 times as many nickels as he has dimes. He also tells us that the value of his nickels and dimes is 50 cents more than the value of his quarters. How many of each kind of coin does he have?

Let d = the number of dimes
well if he has the same number of quarters as he has dimes
then d also can equal the number of quarters
and with the other information
3d = the number of nickels.
Now looking at the information he gave us
10d + 5(3d) = 25d + 50
But that simplifies to
25d = 25d + 50
which is impossible.
There is NO SOLUTION
The given facts are contradictory