SOLUTION: One cup of pasta needs to boil for 3 minutes. Two cups of pasta need to boil for 4 1/2 minutes, and three cups take 6 minutes. How many minutes would seven cups of pasta need to bo

Question 175274: One cup of pasta needs to boil for 3 minutes. Two cups of pasta need to boil for 4 1/2 minutes, and three cups take 6 minutes. How many minutes would seven cups of pasta need to boil before it could be eaten? Optional: Can you write a one-variable expression to represent this situation?
Answer by EMStelley(208) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We need to look for a pattern. Notice that as the amount of pasta goes up a cup, the length of time needed to boil goes up by 1 1/2 minutes. Thus, for example, 4 cups of pasta takes 7 1/2 minutes, 5 cups of pasta takes 9 minutes, 6 cups of pasta takes 10 1/2 minutes, and therefore 7 cups of pasta takes 12 minutes. So there is your pattern.
For the optional part: How can we write an expression to represent this pattern? As noted above, for each increase in cups of pasta, there is a 1 1/2 minutes increase in time needed to boil. Hopefully with the pattern noted, you can work on figuring out the answer to this part.
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