Solving Systems Word Problems Using a Trial & Error Chart 1. Martin s family has lots of pet cats, dogs, rabbits, and hamsters. Altogether, there are 16 bodies living in the house (humans and animals). There are a total of 54 legs. How many pets does Martin s family have? 2. Swaggy P and Kobe Bryant are having a three-point contest. For each shot made, the player gets three points, but for each miss, the player loses five points. After 40 shots, Swaggy P doesn t have any points. How many shots did he make? 3. Charles has $2.85 in his pocket in quarters and dimes. If he has a total of 12 coins in his pocket, how many of them are dimes? 4. Mac s wallet is full of $5 and $10 bills. Altogether, he has $230 from the 25 bills. How many of each bill does he have? 5. A test has twenty-eight questions worth 100 points. The test consists of True/False questions worth 3 points each and multiple choice questions worth 5 points each. How many multiple choice questions are on the test? 6. In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game. He made 64 shots (including free throws). How many free throws did he make? (When Wilt Chamberlain played, the 3-pointer was not a rule yet.) 7. Cody, Shelby, and 13 other friends went to see Horrible Bosses 2 this past weekend. Some of them went to a matinee and the others went to the night showing. The matinee tickets are $7.50 and the night showings are $11.25. The total money spent by all of the friends, including Cody and Shelby, was $135. How many of the friends went to the matinee? 8. Lily is playing Wheel of Fortune and guessed the letter T. She got $650 for each T in the puzzle. Then she bought some vowels. She lost $250 for each vowel (there was only 1 of each vowel). When I stopped watching, Lily had $2750 and there were 7 total letters on the board. How many T s were in the puzzle?
9. Heaven has $1.45 in dimes and quarters. If she has 10 coins total, how many of each kind does she have? 10. The softball team held a car wash to raise money for their pre-game meals. They charged $3 to wash a car and $5 to wash a truck or SUV. If they earned a total of $275 washing 75 vehicles, how many cars did they wash? 11. At Billy s preschool, they have one bike or trike for each of the 25 kids in the school. If there are 57 wheels, how many are bikes? How many are trikes? 12. LeBron James scored 34 points in 15 makes, all on 2-pointers and 3-pointers. How many 3-pointers did he make? 13. David took 795 students on a field trip to King's Dominion. They traveled in vans and busses. Altogether, there were 26 vehicles. Vans held 9 students and busses held 60 students. How many of each type of vehicle were used for the field trip? 14. John is 9 years younger than Judy. Their combined age is 131. How old is John? What year was Judy born? (You may assume that both have had their birthday already this year.) 15. Matthew went to the store to buy medicine for his sore throat. Unfortunately he was out of dollar bills and had to pay with coins. He went through his change jar and picked out 68 coins. All of the coins were either quarters or nickels. If his bill was $9.80, how many of each coin did he use? 16. On a test, there are 30 questions totaling 100 points. The multiple-choice questions are 4 points each and the true/false questions are 2 points each. How many of each type of question are there?
17. The JMU football team scored 54 points in a game on touchdowns and field goals. They scored 10 times. How many touchdowns did JMU score? 18. Joe has a wad of cash. They are all twenties and fives. Altogether, there are 25 bills totaling $230. How many of each bill does Joe have? 19. A Honda dealership sells both motorcycles and cars. There are a total of 200 vehicles on the dealer lot. A tire cleaner cleaned all 698 wheels on the lot. How many motorcycles are on the lot? 20. Dontell is practicing his free-throws. He is tracking his score by giving himself 2 points for every make and he loses 5 points for every miss. After 35 shots, he has 0 points. How many free-throws did Dontell make? 21. Marcy has a total of 100 dimes and quarters. If the total value of the coins is $14.05, how many quarters does she have? 22. A group of people bought movie tickets at the Zeus. They bought a total of 7 tickets (some adult, some kids). Altogether, they spent $72. If adult tickets are $12 and kids are $9, how many of each ticket type did they buy? 23. In his best game of the season, Steph Curry scored 65 points on 28 baskets. All of his makes were 2-pointers and 3-pointers. How many of his baskets were three-pointers? 24. Logan drank 21 sodas in the past month. Some of the sodas were 12-oz cans and the others were 20-oz bottles. If Logan drank a total of 284 ounces of soda, how many of the sodas were cans? How many were bottles?
25. A hunter saw some hyenas and ostriches in a field in Australia. He counted 17 heads and 60 legs. How many hyenas and ostriches were there? (Hint: Hyenas have 4 legs but Ostriches only have 2 legs.) 26. Will is on a gameshow where you earn $100 dollars for every correct answer, but loses $25 for every incorrect answer. If Will leaves the gameshow with $125 after answering 10 questions, how many questions did he answer correctly? 27. Jack has a collection of new nickels and quarters. He has a total of 50 coins worth $10.30. How many of each coin does Jack have? 28. Your teacher is giving you a test worth 100 points containing 40 questions. There are two-point and four-point questions on the test. How many of each type of question are on the test? 29. In the first 7 games of the season, Robbie Gould, the kicker for the Chicago Bears scored 60 points making 26 kicks. How many field goals did he make? How many extra points did he make? (FG = 3 points, XP = 1 point) 30. The local preschool ordered all new bicycles and tricycles for the new school year. Each bicycle and tricycle is shipped in its own box. Oddly, the manufacturer shipped all the wheels in a separate box. If there are 16 boxes of bicycles/tricycles total and 45 total wheels, how many tricycles were ordered? 31. Mr. Herr bought 36 chicken legs and steaks for a big family cookout. The chicken legs were $2.50 each and the steaks were $4.50 each. The total cost for the cookout was $128. How many chicken legs did Mr. Herr buy? 32. Ayaunna has 38 coins totaling $7.25. They are all quarters and dimes. How many of each does Ayaunna have?
33. Cody and his family (9 people) are going to see Mockingjay Part 2 over Thanksgiving break. Adult tickets are $9 and child tickets are $7. If they will need $73, how many kids are in Cody s family? 34. Last night, Tim Duncan scored 40 points all on free-throws and 2-pointers. He made a total of 25 shots. How many free throws did Tim Duncan score? 35. Ariel earned $79 in cash for tips waiting tables at Applebee s. All the cash was in singles and fives. When she took the money to deposit it, there were 31 bills. How many bills of each denomination did she deposit? 36. Grandma s Bakery sells single-crust apple pies for $6.99 and double-crust cherry pies for $10.99. The total number of pies sold on a busy Friday was 36. If the amount collected for all the pies that day was $331.64, how many of each type were sold? 37. At an ice cream parlor, ice cream cones cost $1.10 and sundaes cost $2.35. One day, the receipts for a total of 172 cones and sundaes were $294.20. How many cones were sold? 38. Quentin was challenged to a half court shooting competition. For every half-court shot that he makes, he will earn 20 points. For each half-court shot he misses, he will lose 5 points. After 20 half-court shots, Quentin has zero points. How many halfcourt shots did he make? 39. Sally has 20 coins in her piggy bank, all dimes and quarters. The total amount of money is $3.05. How many of each coin does she have? 40. Your final exam in the class has 50 questions. The multiple-choice questions are worth 2 points and free response questions are worth 5 points. The highest possible score is 145 points. How many of each type of question are on the final exam?