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Problem of the Week
Problem A and Solution
Zookeeper

Problem

Zoey works at the city’s zoo feeding and caring for the animals. Her schedule is the same every morning. She starts work at 7:00 a.m. The table below lists the sequence of morning activities, along with the duration of each activity. The durations include the time it takes to travel to each spot.

Activity Duration of Activity
Team meeting \(\frac{1}{2}\) hour
Feeding the elephants \(30\) minutes
Moving tropical birds to outside habitat \(45\) minutes
Filling the monkey feed bins with fruit and nuts \(30\) minutes
Break \(15\) minutes
Changing the hay for the camels \(45\) minutes
Feeding the walruses and seals \(\frac{3}{4}\) hour
Washing down the rhino stalls \(\frac{1}{2}\) hour
Lunch break half an hour
  1. What time does Zoey start feeding the elephants?

  2. What time does the monkey feeding start?

  3. What time does Zoey’s break end?

  4. How long is it from the time the team meeting starts to the time Zoey’s lunch break ends?

Solution

We add two columns to the table, one with the start time of the activity and one with the end time. From this table, we can answer the questions.

Activity Duration of Activity Start Time End Time
Team meeting \(\frac{1}{2}\) hour 7:00 7:30
Feeding the elephants \(30\) minutes 7:30 8:00
Moving tropical birds to outside habitat \(45\) minutes 8:00 8:45
Filling the monkey feed bins with fruit/nuts \(30\) minutes 8:45 9:15
Break \(15\) minutes 9:15 9:30
Changing the hay for the camels \(45\) minutes 9:30 10:15
Feeding the walruses and seals \(\frac{3}{4}\) hour 10:15 11:00
Washing down the rhino stalls \(\frac{1}{2}\) hour 11:00 11:30
Lunch break half an hour 11:30 12:00
  1. Zoey starts feeding the elephants at 7:30 a.m.

  2. The monkey feeding starts at 8:45 a.m.

  3. Zoey’s break ends at 9:30 a.m.

  4. Since the lunch break ends at 12:00 p.m., it is \(5\) hours after the team meeting starts.