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Division word problem: field goals

Sal solves a division word problem. Created by Sal Khan.

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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ꧁𝕃𝕚𝕝𝕪 ℍ꧂ ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
    Can someone explain this in an easier way so I can understand how to do this? And is there a different way to do this?
    (24 votes)
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    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Ishan
      Well, maybe if I further explain what Sal did, and why he did it, the problem might make more sense to you.

      Let's start with the facts that are given. We know that Blair scored 144 points this season. We also know that every field goal he scored was worth three points. Finally, we know that Blair played 16 games this season. Everything else in the word problem is background information that is not relevant.

      We want to find out how many field goals Blair scored in each game. To do this, Sal divides 144, which is the number of points Blair scored, by three, which is the number of points scored every time he kicked the ball into the goal.

      Dividing 144 by 3, gets us the number of field goals that he scored, which is 48. But, we want to find the number of goals scored in each game. Thus, Sal divides 48 , which is the number of goals scored, by 16 which is the number of games that Blair played.

      Doing this allows us to find the amount of field goals scored in each game, which is 3.

      I believe that the way Sal approached this problem is the easiest way to solve it.

      I hope this helps!
      (24 votes)
  • male robot donald style avatar for user Caleb James
    Can someone help me with this pleeaseeeee?
    (7 votes)
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    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Marii
      Okay! This is basically division, but it is changed into words. You just need to interpret it correctly. First, you must know that if there are certain keywords, you know it is a division word problem. If you hear divided by, split, or share, you are probably doing division.

      Then, you just need to know: what are the numbers, and how can you arrange them so that it makes sense? For the question in the video, you can cross out the 50 in the 50-yard field goals in your mind, because we can identify that it isn't a number in the problem, it is just a type of kick. Now, to find the total number of kicks, we don't need the 16 games fact, either. We will use it later.

      Okay, so we can now know that we just need to have 144 points from kicks, and each of them are worth 3 points. To find the number of kicks, it would seem unlikely to divide 3 by 144, because we would get a decimal number of kicks, which isn't possible. So we divide 144 by 3. You can use a calculator or use division to get the answer. Either way, you should get 48. But 48 is the total number of kicks, and we just want in one game.

      Now we use the information that he played in 16 games. If he got 48 in total, and he played 16 games, then we divide 48 by 16 to get 3. Again, we don't want to have 16 divided by 48, because that would get a small number, and you can't get a decimal number of points. It has to be an integer. So 48 divided by 16. You can calculate it or punch it into a calculator, but the answer should always be 3.

      Hope this helps!
      (10 votes)
  • aqualine sapling style avatar for user Cammenga
    i m stuk.......
    bob buys two cartons of strawberries. One carton has 19 berries and the other carton has 26 berries. She wants to divide the berries into bags so there are exactly 6 berries in each bag.
    How many bags will have 6 berries? 😁thnxxxxxx
    (6 votes)
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    • male robot johnny style avatar for user 🅹🅾🅷🅽🅽🆈
      Hi @Cammenga. In this scenario, you have a word problem. One key thing that you want to do is find the important information in this problem.

      There are Two Cartons, and in one there is 26 berries and the other there is 19 berries. We can add up the berries: 26 + 19 = 45 berries in total.

      Now we are told that there needs to be 6 berries in each bag for as many bags possible. For this, we can do 45 divided by 6, or 45/6. This leaves us with 7 R3. This means that there are 7 bags that have 6 berries and 3 berries left over.

      Hope this helps! -Johnny Unidas
      (10 votes)
  • mr pink orange style avatar for user Basketball_Lover
    I don't get it. plz make another video with basic instructions
    (8 votes)
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  • piceratops seedling style avatar for user JosephV
    i understand this but its of hard to understand it
    (8 votes)
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  • female robot ada style avatar for user Husna 😻
    I do NOT get this PLEASE EXPLAIN
    (6 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Marii
      Okay! This is basically division, but it is changed into words. You just need to interpret it correctly. First, you must know that if there are certain keywords, you know it is a division word problem. If you hear divided by, split, or share, you are probably doing division.

      Then, you just need to know: what are the numbers, and how can you arrange them so that it makes sense? For the question in the video, you can cross out the 50 in the 50-yard field goals in your mind, because we can identify that it isn't a number in the problem, it is just a type of kick. Now, to find the total number of kicks, we don't need the 16 games fact, either. We will use it later.

      Okay, so we can now know that we just need to have 144 points from kicks, and each of them are worth 3 points. To find the number of kicks, it would seem unlikely to divide 3 by 144, because we would get a decimal number of kicks, which isn't possible. So we divide 144 by 3. You can use a calculator or use division to get the answer. Either way, you should get 48. But 48 is the total number of kicks, and we just want in one game.

      Now we use the information that he played in 16 games. If he got 48 in total, and he played 16 games, then we divide 48 by 16 to get 3. Again, we don't want to have 16 divided by 48, because that would get a small number, and you can't get a decimal number of points. It has to be an integer. So 48 divided by 16. You can calculate it or punch it into a calculator, but the answer should always be 3.

      Hope this helps!
      (4 votes)
  • winston default style avatar for user brian.chatel
    i got the same answer but calculated like that :

    144/16 = 9 , 9/3 = 3 , would that be correct ? i choose to divide the games first and then the points but i don't know if this is valid ?
    (5 votes)
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  • male robot donald style avatar for user Mustafa
    I love football so much that I knew all of it
    (5 votes)
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  • leafers seed style avatar for user Evan Peterson
    what does wsg mean?? im confused-
    (4 votes)
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    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Marii
      Okay! This is basically division, but it is changed into words. You just need to interpret it correctly. First, you must know that if there are certain keywords, you know it is a division word problem. If you hear divided by, split, or share, you are probably doing division.

      Then, you just need to know: what are the numbers, and how can you arrange them so that it makes sense? For the question in the video, you can cross out the 50 in the 50-yard field goals in your mind, because we can identify that it isn't a number in the problem, it is just a type of kick. Now, to find the total number of kicks, we don't need the 16 games fact, either. We will use it later.

      Okay, so we can now know that we just need to have 144 points from kicks, and each of them are worth 3 points. To find the number of kicks, it would seem unlikely to divide 3 by 144, because we would get a decimal number of kicks, which isn't possible. So we divide 144 by 3. You can use a calculator or use division to get the answer. Either way, you should get 48. But 48 is the total number of kicks, and we just want in one game.

      Now we use the information that he played in 16 games. If he got 48 in total, and he played 16 games, then we divide 48 by 16 to get 3. Again, we don't want to have 16 divided by 48, because that would get a small number, and you can't get a decimal number of points. It has to be an integer. So 48 divided by 16. You can calculate it or punch it into a calculator, but the answer should always be 3.

      Hope this helps!
      (2 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user Jack
    On the unit test it says that $17/$4 = $4 remainer 1. However, doing this on a calculator reveals 4.25. What is going on here?
    (2 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user

Video transcript

Blair scored 144 points this football season. He scored all his points with 50-yard field goal-- that's actually pretty impressive. 50. That's close to record breaking. Even in the National Football League, I think the record is like 60 yards or something. So Blair seems like a fairly impressive individual. He scored all his points with 50-yard field goal kicks. I'm just underlining that, because I'm impressed by how far those field goals are, which are each worth 3 points. So a field goal in American football, I should clarify for those of you from other countries who think we're talking about soccer, a field goal is worth 3 points each. He played in 16 games this season. How many field goals did Blair make in each game? Assume he made the same number in each game. So this guy is an incredibly consistent field goal kicker. He makes 50-yard field goals. He makes the same in every game. So let's think about how many field goals did he make in each game. So there's a couple of ways you can do this. We could first figure out, well, how many field goals did he make in the season? So he scored 144 points total. And if we divide that by 3, we divide that by the fact that a field goal gets you 3 points per field goal. So the total number of points divided by the points per field goal, this should give us the total number of field goals he had. So this right over here is going to be equal to-- so 3 goes into 144. Let me do this on the side right over here. 3 goes into 144. 3 doesn't go into 1. It goes into 14 four times. 4 times 3 is 12. Subtract 14 minus 12 is 2, bring down a 4. 3 goes into 24 perfectly. It goes exactly 8 times. 8 times 3 is 24. We have no remainder. So 144 divided by 3 is equal to 48. So all season, he has kicked 48 field goals. Now, we still haven't answered the other question. How many did he make in each game? And we're assuming it's the same number in each game. So this is the total number across 16 games. To find out the average he makes in each game, we divide this by 16. So let's take 48 total field goals divided by 16 games is going to be-- well, 48 divided by 16 is 3. This is equal to 3 field goals per game. And we're done. How many field goals did he make in each game? He scored 3.