Let's learn to solve comparison word problemswhen they are written as a single sentence. It's a little tougher than the ones you've worked before, but you can do it!
Let's start with this problem: If the beach is 199 miles away from Arun's house and 47 miles past the city, how far is the city from Arun's house?
For our number family, we'll use the variable (letter) B for beach and the variable C for city.
Look for key words in the problem that point to the comparison. Remember, the thing that is farther away is more miles away. It's the greatest (larger) number. So the answer is beach. The lesser (smaller) numbers are city and 47. The number family for this comparison word problem looks like this:
You know one other number. Replace B with 199. Now you can solve the problem.
Let's try a more challenging comparison word problem. First, look at this table. It shows the number of rides and games that were at two parks, Playworld and Funworld:
How many more rides were there in Playworld than in Funworld? We can answer this question by making a number family. What's the greatest number for this family, Playworld or Funworld? You're right-since Playworld has more rides than Funworld, Playworld is the greatest number in the number family. Let's use the variables P for Playworld and F for Funworld.
Funworld and the answer are the lesser numbers. Now we can put in the numbers we know from the table. Write the number of rides in Funworld and Playworld. We write our number family for this comparison word problem this way:
Here's the number problem:
Now you know that Playworld has six more rides than Funworld!
