Division word problem: field goals

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About this video

Blair scored 144 points, all from 3-point field goals, over 16 games. The video divides 144 by 3 to get 48 field goals for the season, then divides 48 by 16 to get 3 field goals per game.

You'll be able to

  • solve a two-step division word problem.
  • divide total points by points per field goal to find the number of field goals.
  • divide a total by the number of games to find how many per game.

Key words

field goal
A kick in American football that is worth 3 points.
per
For each one, like 3 points per field goal or 3 field goals per game.
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.

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