Please help with algebra homework??

Question

My daughter has an algebra story problem and I cannot figure out how to solve it. She needs to show her work. PLEASE help???:

In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase added 8.28 X 10 (10 to the 4th power...I can't type it) square miles to the United States. The price of the land was 15 million. In 1853 the Gadsden Purchase added 2.96 X 10 (10 to the 4th power) square miles. The price was $10 million. Find the price per square mile of the Louisiana Purchase.

Answer 1

Its not an algebra question. It is actually a simple division problem. You don't need any of the Gadsden Purchase information, so you can throw that out.

Just take the $15,000,000 and divide by 82,800 square miles. I get $181.16 per square mile.

PS: You may want to check your exponents. The Purchase was for 80 million francs, or $15 million dollars. The area, however, was 828,000 (8.28 x 10^5) square miles. If 82,800 is how the problem is written, however, just figure that you now know why this teacher is teaching algebra instead of geography.

Answer 2

First off forget about the Gadsden Purchase. It has nothing to do with the question about the Louisiana Purchase.

Second, you need to understand scientific notation. 10^4 (10 to the 4th power) = 10*10*10*10 = 10000

So, the area of the Louisiana purchase can be thought of as 8.28 * 10000 which equals 82,800 square miles.

The question asked for price per square mile, so divide the price of the Louisiana Purchase (remember the Gadsden Purchase is not relevant to the question) by the number of square miles of the Louisiana Purchase to get your answer.

Answer 3

If the question is about the Louisiana purchase, you don't have to worry about the Gadsden purchase.

they bought 8.28 x 10,000 square miles for $15,000,000

they bought 82,800 square miles for $15,000,000

This is exactly the same pattern of sum as buying 4 apples for $12. how much did each apple cost?

Each apple cost $3 and you get this answer by dividing 12 by 4

you do exactly the same pattern of sum for the land price.

! square mile cost 15,000,000 divided by 82,800

(let your daughter do this bit. She will feel so proud of her succes if SHE completes the work set Use as many apple type examples as it takes for her to understand the operation - the easier the better.)

Instead of just buying apples this week, we could buy them next week too.

Next week we buy 3 apples for $18 (apples have gone up in price)

! apple in the second week cost $18/3

$6

You can work out the price of the Gadsden purchase using the same pattern.

You might want to work out the average cost of apples this week and next week.

If you do, you use this pattern

The TOTAL number of apples bought in the 2 weeks was 4 + 3 apples

=7 apples

The TOTAL money spent on apples in the 2 weeks was $12 + 18

=$30

The AVERAGE price = TOTAL cost/ TOTAL number of apples

=$30/7

= $4 and 2/7

= $4.29 to 2 decimal places

[Idon't know if you need this second bit - it's useful anyway. It's what you do if they ask you the average price per square mile of the 2 purchases]

Good on you for being the kind of parent who pulls out all the stops to help her child. I wish there were more as caring as you.

Answer 4

Problems like these happen a lot.

It would be easier to bring the scientific notation of 8.28 x 10^4 to 82,800...now that that is done...blow up the Gadsden information...Then just write out the 15 million dollars:

$15,000,000
--------------------------- = $181. 1594203 per square mile
82,800 square miles

Answer 5

LA purchase: $1.5*10^7/8.28*10^4=.1812*10^3=$181.2/sq mi.


I know these #'s are wrong The LA purchase was way more that 82,800 sq miles. I t5hink it was closer to 828,000 or 8.28*10^5.

That would make the price $18.2/mi^2

Answer 6

8.28 * 10^4 is scientific notation for 82,800.

15000000/82800 = $181.16 per square mile for the Louisiana purchase.

Answer 7

This isn't really algebra; it's arithmetic. You have 8.28 x 10^4 mi^2 that cost $15,000,000. You just need to do division here. ($15000000) / (82800 mi^2) will give you a result in dollars per square mile, which is what you needed.

Answer 8

Gadsden Purchase Price

Answer 9

-4c - 3c = 22 - 36 -7c = -14 c = 2 4g/14 - g/14 = 3/14 + 3/7 3g/14 = 3/14 + 6/14 = 9/14 3g = 9 g = 3 3r/4 = 5/6 - 2/3 3r/4 = 5/6 - 4/6 3r/4 = a million/6 9r/12 = 2/12 9r = 2 r = 2/9 6x = 25 + 86 = 111 x = 111/6 x = $18.50

Answer 10

~You shouldn't figure it out. It's your daughter's homework, and if she can't do it, she should ask her teacher for help. How else is she going to learn.
This is not an algebra problem. All she has to do, if you have stated the problem correctly, is divide total cost by acreage. It is a division problem only.
If she doesn't learn the process, she will never be able to pass the course or the final. She should ask the teacher for extra help before she gets too far behind.