DIAGRAMMING A WORD PROBLEM Often in a word problem, it may be easiest to draw a diagram to truly ‘see’ what is happening in the problem. This concept can be applied to all kinds of word problems. One such example of a word problem that can be diagrammed is the following: Paul is taking medications for his illness and needs to take an antibiotic every 6 hours, a pain reliever every 4 hours, and every 3 hours he needs to drink an entire glass of water. Paul starts this regime at 8am. At what time will he be taking both of the medicines and the water? We can diagram this by setting up a schedule for Paul. I will use ‘A’ for antibiotic, ‘P’ for pain reliever, and ‘W’ for the glass of water. Since everything must be taken in hours increments, the schedule can be set up by hours starting at 8am. If Paul starts his regime at 8am, then they everything would be taken at 8am and that is the hour we will count from for all of the other times the medication is taken. First you could start by filling in all of the antibiotics. 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm 12am APW
A
A
Next, the pain reliever could be filled in. 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm 12am APW
P
A
P
AP
P
And then finally, the water can be added. Make note of where it is that all three fall in the same hour! 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm 12am APW
W
P
AW
P
W
APW
You can tell by the clearly designed diagram, that all three, the antibiotic, the pain reliever, and the glass of water, will be taken again at 8pm. So we have our answer!
W
P