Question

You are mowing a lawn. After 12 minutes, 52% of the lawn still needs mowed. How long does it take to mow the entire lawn? Write an equation that represents the percent y of the lawn that still needs mowed after x minutes.

Answer 1

12/x = 52/48
12 * 48 = 52x
x = 11.07 This is one way to do it.

Let the time = x
Let the part of the lawn = y

The general equation
y = k*x
52/100 = k * 12
k = 0.043333 
y = 0.043333*x
y = 0.043333* 11.08
y = 0.48 which is what it should be.

Yet another way is to let y = kx
52 = k*12
k = 52/12
k = 4.33333333

y = 4.333333 * x
y = 4.333333 * 48
48  = 4.333333 * x
x = 11.07 which is just what you should expect.