the sum of the distance to hikers walk the 53 miles, the distance is 25 miles what are the distances?

Question

Please help solve. Not really sure what its asking.

Answer 1

I'm going to guess that you meant "the difference is 25 miles" and give an answer based on that. If I'm wrong, then please re-post the question.

 

Call the two distances a and b. Under my assumption, we have two equations:

 

a + b = 53     The sum is 53

a  - b = 25     The difference is 25

 

We can solve this system of equations by adding them:

 

2a = 78

 

Divide both sides by 2 to get    a = 39 miles

 

Then b must be 14 miles, so that their sum is 53 and their difference is 25.