Questions that arise in the real world are usually expressed in words, rather than in mathematical symbols. For example: What will be the monthly payment on my mortgage? How much insulation must I use in my house? What course should I fly to Boston? How safe is this new product? In order to answer such questions, it is necessary to have certain pertinent information. For instance, to determine the monthly payment on a mortgage, you need to know the amount of the mortgage, the interest rate, and the time period involved.
            Problems in which a question is asked and pertinent information is supplied in the form of words are called “word problems” or “story problems” by students and teachers alike. We study word problems that can be worked by setting up an equation containing the unknown and solving it by the methods illustrated. For working these problems, we recommended the following systematic procedure:

            Step 1. Begin by reading the problem carefully, several times if necessary, until you understand it well. Draw a diagram whenever possible. Look for the question or questions you are to answer.
            Step 2. List all of the unknown numerical quantities involved in the problem. It may be useful to arrange these quantities in a table or chart along with related know quantities. Select one of the unknown quantities on your list, one that seems to play a prominent role in the problem, and call it . (Of course, any other letter will do as well.)
            Step 3. Using information given or implied in the wording of the problem, write algebraic relationships among the numerical quantities listed in step 2. Relationships that express some of these quantities in term of are especially useful. Reread the problem, sentence by sentence, to make sure you have rewriting all the given information in algebraic form.
            Step 4. Combine the algebraic relationship written in step 3 into a single equation containing only  and known numerical constants.
            Step 5. Solve the equation for. Use this value of to answer the question or questions in step 1.
            Step 6. Check your answer to make certain that agrees with the facts in the problem.

Example:
            One number is  less than a second number. Three times the first number added to twice the second number is. Find the two numbers.
Solution:
            We follow the procedure just outlined.
            Step 1. Question: What are the two numbers?
            Step 2. Unknown quantities:  and  
            Step 3. Information given
                         (i) ; that is,
                                                         
                         (ii) ; that is,
                                                              
            Step 4. From relationship (i) in step 3, we have
                                    
                         Therefore, relationship (ii) can be written as
                                    
            Step 5. Solving the equation , we obtain
                                                         
                                                                           
                                                                             
            Therefore
            and           
            Step 6. Check indeed,  is  less than  and

Example:
            A suit is on sale for. What was the original price of the suit if it has been discounted?
Solution:
            We follow the procedure just outlined.
            Step 1. Question: What was the original price of the suit?
            Step 2. Unknown quantities: Theof the suit and the amount of the  in dollars.  Let .
            Step 3. sale price dollars; that is,
                                                  
                          of
            Step 4.   
            Step 5.   
                                  
            The original price of the suit was.
            Step 6. Check: If a  suit is discounted by , the discount is  and the sale price is .