Derby Trail Forums - Earth Day Math Problems

Quote:

It takes around 700 gallons of water to make a cotton shirt, and 2,600 gallons to make a pair of jeans — most of them to grow the cotton. On average, every dollar you spend on clothes and shoes costs about 23 gallons of water! National Geographic

1)If it takes 2,600 gallons to make a pair of jeans how many gallons per dollar are used making a $30 pair of jeans?

2) If it costs 23 gallons per dollar spent on jeans, how many gallons are used for a $30 dollar pair of jeans?

3) On average if you use 23 gallons of water per dollar spent, and a average pair of jeans takes 2,600 gallons to make, how much do the average pair of jeans cost?

When you do the math you find that according to question 1 we actually use 86.6 gallons per dollar spent rather than 23. Question 2 reveals it takes 690 gallons to make a $30 dollar pair of jeans or approximately a quarter of the 2,600 quoted. And when we finally complete question 3 we find that an average pair of jeans cost $113 dollars.

Now at least kids can learn what an average pair of jeans really cost, contrary to what's on the sales tag. Because National Geographic says so ;)