Question

A washing machine uses 40 gallons of water to wash 5 loads of laundry. The amount of water used varies directly with the number of loads of laundry. How many gallons of water would be used to wash 12 loads

Answer 1

Divide 40 by 5 to give you your gallons per load. Then multiply this result by 12 to get how many gallons you would use.
Mathematically:
40gal/5loads = 8gal/load
12loads x 8gal/load = 96gal