To determine how many minutes it will take Grandma to reduce the number of weeds in her garden from 250 to 30, we can set up an equation based on the information given.
Step 1: Set up the equation
- Let \( x \) be the number of minutes Grandma spends removing weeds.
- Initially, there are 250 weeds.
- She will remove weeds at a rate of 5 per minute.
- After \( x \) minutes, the number of weeds left will be \( 250 - 5x \).
- We want to find out when there are only 30 weeds remaining.
We can set up the equation:
\[ 250 - 5x = 30 \]
Step 2: Solve the equation
- First, subtract 250 from both sides:
\[ -5x = 30 - 250 \]
\[ -5x = -220 \]
- Next, divide both sides by -5:
\[ x = \frac{-220}{-5} \]
\[ x = 44 \]
Solution
It will take Grandma 44 minutes to reduce the weeds to 30.
Meaning of the solution in words
This means that by spending 44 minutes removing weeds at a rate of 5 weeds per minute, Grandma will be able to decrease the number of weeds in her garden from 250 to only 30.