Each morning a deli worker has to make several pies and peel a bucket of potatoes. on monday it took the worker 2 h to make the pies and an average of 1.5 min to peel each potato. on tuesday the worker finished the work in the amount of time but it took 2.5 h to make the pies and an average of 1 min to peel each potato. about how many potatoes are in a bucket?
• what qualities do you know and how are they related to each other?
• how can you use the known and unknown quantities to write an equation for this situation?

Let the number of Potatoes = P 

On Monday the time spent was 2 hours + 1.5*P minutes 
Convert the time to make the pies into minutes = 120 minutres 
Therefore on Monday the worker took 

120 + 1.5P minutes 

On Tuesday the worker took 2.5 hours (150 minutes) + 1minute x P 
ie 
150 + P minutes 

We are told that the times are the same therefore 
120 + 1.5P = 150 + P 
subtract P from both sides of the equation 
120 + 0.5P = 150 
Subtract 120 from both sides of the equation 
0.5P = 30 

Therefore P = 30/0.5 = 60 

There are 60 potatoes in the bucket.