conversations.from: human
conversations.value: I would love to understand how to solve this problem: Janet lives in a city built on a grid system.  She walks 3 blocks north, then seven times as many blocks west. Then she turns around and walks 8 blocks south and twice as many blocks east in the direction of her home. If Janet can walk 2 blocks/minute, how long will it take her to get home?
  Can you explain?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: First, find the total number of blocks south Janet is from her starting point by subtracting the blocks she walked north from the blocks she walked south: 8 blocks - 3 blocks = 5 blocks
  Then find the number blocks she walked west: 3 blocks * 7 = 21 blocks
  Then find the number of blocks she walked east: 8 blocks * 2 = 16 blocks
  Subtract the number of blocks she walked east from the number of blocks she walked west to find how many blocks west of her starting point she is: 21 blocks - 16 blocks = 5 blocks
  Add the number of blocks she needs to walk north to the number of blocks she needs to walk east: 5 blocks + 5 blocks = 10 blocks
  Finally, divide the distance she needs to walk by her speed to find how long she'll spend walking: 10 blocks / 2 blocks/minute = 5 minutes