User: Janet hires six employees. Four of them are warehouse workers who make $15/hour, and the other two are managers who make $20/hour. Janet has to pay 10% of her workers' salaries in FICA taxes. If everyone works 25 days a month and 8 hours a day, how much does Janet owe total for their wages and taxes for one month?
Response: First figure out how many hours each worker works per month by multiplying the number of days they work by the number of hours a day they work: 25 days * 8 hours/day = 200 hours. Then calculate how much one warehouse worker makes per month by multiplying their hourly rate by the number of hours they work: 200 hours * $15/hour = $3000. Then multiply that number by 4 to find out how much all the warehouse workers make: $3000/worker * 4 workers = $12,000. Now multiply the hours each manager works (also 200) by their hourly wage to find out how much one manager makes per month: 200 hours * $20/hour = $4,000. Now multiply one manager's wages by the number of managers (2) to find their total wage amount: $4,000/manager * 2 managers = $8,000. Now add the wages for the managers and the workers to find the total cost of the wages: $8,000 + $12,000 = $20,000. Now multiply the total wage bill by 10% to find how much the FICA taxes are: $20,000 * .1 = $2,000. Now add the total wage bill to the total tax amount to find the grand total: $2,000 + $20,000 = $22,000. Therefore the answer is 22000
User: Ellie went to visit a circus with Sarah and they both got lost in the house of mirrors. They have to travel through the house of mirrors a few times before they finally get out and when they leave, they discuss how many times they've seen their own reflections. Sarah says that every time they were in the room with tall mirrors, she saw her reflection 10 times and every time they were in the room with wide mirrors, she saw her reflection 5 times. Ellie says that every time they were in the room with tall mirrors, she saw her reflection 6 times and every time they were in the room with wide mirrors she saw her reflection 3 times. They both passed through the room with tall mirrors 3 times each and they both passed through the room with wide mirrors 5 times each. In total, how many times did Sarah and Ellie see their reflections?
Response: In the rooms with tall mirrors, Sarah saw her reflection a total of 10 reflections * 3 passes = 30 times. In the rooms with wide mirrors, Sarah saw her reflection a total of 5 reflections * 5 passes = 25 reflections. So Sarah saw her reflection a total of 30 + 25 = 55 times. In the rooms with tall mirrors, Ellie saw her reflection a total of 6 reflections * 3 passes = 18 times. In the rooms with wide mirrors, Ellie saw her reflection a total of 3 reflections * 5 passes = 15 times. So Ellie saw her reflection a total of 18 + 15 = 33 times. Therefore, Sarah and Ellie saw their reflections a total of 55 + 33 = 88 times. Therefore the answer is 88
User: Hasan is packing up his apartment because he’s moving across the country for a new job. He needs to ship several boxes to his new home. The movers have asked that Hasan avoid putting more than a certain weight in pounds in any cardboard box. The moving company has helpfully provided Hasan with a digital scale that will alert him if a package is too heavy. Hasan is in the kitchen, and he fills a cardboard box with 38 dinner plates. When he checks the box, the scale reports his box is too heavy. Hasan knows each of his plates weighs 10 ounces. He removes a single plate from the box and checks the movers’ scale again. The scale reports his box is still too heavy. Hasan repeats the process again and again. When he has removed enough plates, the movers’ scale shows the box is now an acceptable weight for shipping. Hasan deduces that each shipping box can hold 20 pounds before the scale says the box is too heavy.  How many plates did Hasan need to remove from the shipping box?
Response: Let x be the number of plates removed from the box. Hasan figured out the movers' weight limit was 20 pounds. Since a pound is equal to 16 ounces, each box can hold 20 * 16, or 320 ounces. Each plate weighs 10 ounces, so the weight of the plates in the box after Hasan removes enough plates to satisfy the movers' weight limit is (38 - x) * 10 ounces. Since these two values are equal, we can write the equation (38 - x) * 10 = 320. Dividing both sides by 10 leaves 38-x = 32. Adding x to both sides gives 38 – x + x = 32 +x, or, 38 = 32 +x. Subtracting 32 from both sides gives the value of x, which is the number of plates removed from the box, 38 -32 = 32 + x – 32, or, 6 = x. Therefore the answer is 6
User: Peggy is moving and is looking to get rid of her record collection. Sammy says that he will buy all of them for 4 dollars each. Bryan is only interested in half of the records but will offer 6 dollars each for the half that he is interested in and 1 dollar each for the remaining half that he is not interested in with the hopes that he can resell them in bulk later. If Peggy has 200 records, what is the difference in profit between Sammy versus Bryan's deal?
Response: Sammy is offering to take the whole collection of 200 records and pay Peggy 4 dollars each for them which would net Peggy 200 * 4=800 dollars for her entire record collection. Bryan is willing to buy Peggy's entire record collection but at two different price points, half at one point and half at another. Half of Peggy's record collection is 200/2=100, which means that 100 records will sell for one price and 100 records will sell for another price. Bryan is willing to pay more for the half of the record collection that he is interested in so Peggy would net 100 * 6=600 dollars for the first half of her record collection. For the half of the collection that Bryan is just planning on reselling at a later date, he is willing to offer Peggy 100 *1=100 dollars to take off of her hands. In total Bryan is willing to offer Peggy 600+100=700 dollars for her entire record collection. If Sammy is offering 800 dollars to buy Peggy's entire record collection and Bryan is offering 700 dollars for Peggy's entire record collection, then Peggy's net profit would be 800-700=100 dollars more by taking Sammy's deal instead of Bryan's deal. Therefore the answer is 100