Some comparison word problems are written as a single sentence. When this happens, we need to read each part of the sentence carefully to find all the information we need.
Here's an example:
If a baseball traveled 160 feet farther than a football, and if the football traveled 120 feet, how far did the baseball travel?
This problem can be separated into three parts. The first part tells how to make the number family. Let's read the first part again: A baseball traveled 160 feet farther than a football. Replace "baseball" with the variable (letter) B and "football" with the variable F. Which variable is the greatest number in this number family? The baseball traveled farther, so B is the greatest number. F and 160 are the lesser numbers.
The next part of the problem tells a number that belongs in the family. The football traveled 120 feet. In our number family, we replace the variable F with the number 120. Our lesser numbers are now 120 and 160.
The last part of the problem asks the question, "How far did the baseball travel?" B is the greatest number, so to find it, we add the two lesser addends (numbers to be added together). The two lesser addends are 120 and 160, which when added together equal 280. The baseball traveled 280 feet.
