Question

Ingrid walked her dog and washed her car. The time she spent walking her dog was one-half the time it took her to wash her car. It took Ingrid 23 minutes to walk the dog. How long did it take Ingrid to wash her car? Use the variable w to represent how long it took Ingrid to wash her car.  

Answer 1

Let w be the time Ingrid took to wash her car.

We know that she spent half that time walking her dog, this means that:

$\frac{1}{2}w$

is the time she spent walking her dog. We also know that she spent 23 minutes doing that, then we have the equation:

$\frac{1}{2}w=23$

Solving for w we have:

$\begin{gathered} \frac{1}{2}w=23 \\ w=2\cdot23 \\ w=46 \end{gathered}$

Therefore she spent 46 minutes whashing the car.