How many terms are in the algebraic expression 3x^2+4y-1

Asmall (but heavy) particle placed in a glass of water will follow a zigzag motion because the particle will bounce off of the water molecules it meets. this is called brownian motion. a physicist simulates this on a computer, by varying the distance a particle can travel (called the mean free length), on average, before it collides with a water molecule and assigning the change in motion to be one of 8 directions, each with a similar probability. by running the simulated particle (with the same mean free length) many times she determines that it should take 15 seconds, on average, for the particle to fall to the bottom, with a standard deviation of 1.5 seconds. next she lets a real particle fall through a glass of water and finds that it took 18 seconds. what does she conclude, and why?

It is saturday morning and jeremy has discovered he has a leak coming from the water heater in his attic. since plumbers charge extra to come out on the weekends, jeremy is planning to use buckets to catch the dripping water. he places a bucket under the drip and steps outside to walk the dog. in half an hour the bucket is 1/5 of the way full. what is the rate at which the water is leaking per hour?

How can writing phrases as algebraic expressions you solve problems?