Help with tricky problem please!

[LouiseEileen]

My handsome brother and I can't figure this one out, can you please help us??

h + h * 45 * 234 / 36000 = 72615.15

The text book says the answer is 56181.93 but we can't figure out how to get that. Our steps look like this:

h + 10530h / 36000 = 72615.15 (We multiplied the h, 45 and 234 together)

h + 10530h = 72615.15 * 36000 (We moved the 36000 to the other side of the equals sign, which leaves us with

h + 10530h = 2614145400

Then what? Can someone please check if our steps are correct so far and then tell us where to go from here? Thanks very much!

 

[tkhunny]

h + h * 45 * 234 / 36000 = 72615.15
h + 10530h / 36000 = 72615.15

That was good.

h + 10530h = 72615.15 * 36000

Oops! There's your problem. The "Order of Operations" requires you to address multiplication before addition. This means that you took:

h + 10530h / 36000 = 72615.15

to mean

(h + 10530h) / 36000 = 72615.15

When really it should have been treated as

h + (10530h / 36000) = 72615.15

Multiplying everything by 36000 would be fine, but you missed a piece.

36000*[h + (10530h / 36000)] = 36000*72615.15
36000*h + 10530*h = 36000*72615.15

Can you finish?

 

[LouiseEileen]

Thank you, tkhunny!

While we were waiting for a response, my pretty sister, LouiseEileen, kept working on this problem and, through trial and error, came across the solution. Your answer helped us in confirming what she had done and explaining *the reason* why it worked. Thank you!

We are likely to back with more questions as my pretty sister has an exam on Wednesday and we still seem to only get about 70% of these kinds of questions correct on the first try.