Graph Word Problems (Part 1)

Four friends met in a park to discuss who they would invite to their Halloween party. Johnny was going to invite seven people, Joey was going to invite five people, Alex was going to invite nine people and Steven was going to invite four people. Using a chart graph, which two friends would bring the most people and the fewest people?

You have just opened your own fast food restaurant and you poll your customers as to what food items they would like to appear on your menu. Sixty-seven people wanted big hamburgers. Thirty-four people wanted corn dogs. Fifty-two people wanted tacos included. Twenty-three people wanted pizza. Eighty-one people wanted milk shakes and eighteen people wanted ice-cream sandwiches. Using a chart graph, which three top items will you include on your menu?

At the middle school fall dance, students were asked which kind of music they would like played. Create a chart graph that shows that twenty-two percent said they wanted pop music. Twenty-eight percent wanted rock-n-roll music. Fourteen percent wanted country music. Three percent wanted jazz. Seven percent wanted Latin music and twenty-six percent wanted rap. What kind of value did those who wanted rock-n-roll music compare to those who wanted pop music?

The Johnson family went to their local amusement park to enjoy a fun filled day. Papa Johnson gave each of his three children twenty dollars to ride the rides. Create three pie charts showing how much each child spent. Charlie spent four dollars on bumper cars, three dollars on the slippery slope and eight dollars on the roller coaster. Mary spent seven dollars on the Scrambler, three dollars on the slippery slope, two dollars on the Ferris wheel and six dollars on the rocket ship. David spent nine dollars on the roller coaster, two dollars on the Scrambler and four dollars on the bumper cars. What kind of value did Charlie spend compared to what David spent?

Staying with the Johnson family mentioned in Question 4, while Charlie, Mary and David were going on rides - Papa and Mama Johnson were playing games in the arcade. Each had twenty dollars to spend. Create two pie charts showing how much Papa and Mama spent. Papa Johnson spent eleven dollars on bowling, seven dollars on pinball machines and six dollars on shoot the duck. Mama Johnson spent twelve dollars on bingo, three dollars on pinball machines and four dollars on whack-a-mole. What kind of value did Papa spend with his twenty dollars?

Martha and her three best friends wanted to lose weight before spring break. Martha had to lose fifteen pounds. Janet wanted to lose nineteen pounds. Carol wanted to lose six pounds and Allison wanted to lose twenty-four pounds. Martha wound up losing half of what she wanted to. Janet lost sixty percent of what she wanted to. Carol lost ninety percent of what she wanted to and Allison lost sixty-eight percent of what she wanted to. By creating a chart graph, which girl lost the most pounds?

Mr. Atkins bought thirty-two new math books for his fifth period class. Four of the books had missing odd page numbers and had to be returned. Three other books were teacher’s copies showing all of the answers so two of those had to be returned as well. Mrs. Wilson had an extra copy of the same book so she gave her extra copy to Mr. Atkins. Two dogs jumped through the window and stole two of the books, shredding them in the school yard. Using a pie graph, how many of the new books was Mr. Atkins able to keep?

For our civics class we had to watch the election results of our local candidates. Boyner, Carlson, Jefferson and Wilcox were all running for mayor. There were 100,000 votes to be captured. Create a chart graph that shows the four candidates and the percentage of votes. (NOTE: 100,000 equals 100%.) Boyner got twenty-three percent of the votes. Carlson got twenty-two percent of the votes. Jefferson got twenty-seven percent of the votes and Wilcox got twenty-eight percent of the votes. How many more votes did Wilcox get over Carlson?

My grandparents started a college savings account for each of their four grandchildren, Phillip, Patricia, Kelly and Michael. When each grandchild graduated there was $12,000 in their fund. Phillip took sixty-five percent of his fund for his first year of college. Patricia took forty-nine percent of her fund. Kelly took sixty-one percent of her fund and Michael took twenty-two percent of his. Create a chart graph to show each grandchild and the percentage of their college fund they took out their first year. Who took out $7,320.00?

Returning to the Johnson family mentioned in Questions 4 and 5, Papa and Mama Johnson were playing games in the arcade and each had twenty dollars to spend. Looking at the two pie charts created earlier, we learned that Papa Johnson spent eleven dollars on bowling, seven dollars on pinball machines and six dollars on shoot the duck while Mama Johnson spent twelve dollars on bingo, three dollars on pinball machines and four dollars on whack-a-mole. What kind of value did Mama spend with her twenty dollars?