How can -2.67 divided by .03 be represented in a word problem or story problem?

Answer 1

This is hard because you have a negative initial value and the result is negative. Not a lot of things in the world are represented as negative quantities. For example, you don't have -89 friends, do you? However, things like bank balances owed, negative changes in amounts, negative changes in depth, etc. could sort of be considered negative amounts.

Try these though:

Bob had borrowed some money to buy chips to go gambling. At the end of the evening he gain was -$2.67 (a loss) which represented 3% of the money he originally borrowed. Given that Bob had no money of his own when he started, figure out his balance at the beginning of the evening including the loan.

Or...

Jane sold some stocks. If she was charged a fee of 3 cents for each stock sold, and this appeared as -$2.67 on her stock statement, figure out the change in the number of stocks she owns.

Or...

The level in a lake is now -2.67 meters below where it was a month ago. This drop represents 3% of the total depth of the lake. Figure out the total drop in the lake level, when the lake drains completely.

Answer 2

trevor owed his teacher $2.67 for breaking a ruler. Each of his friends pitched in $0.03 to help him pay for the ruler. How many friends does trevor have? (since he owes his friends, the answer would be negative)