Janel picked up twice as many shells as Sue. Altogether, they brought home 39 shells. How may shells did Sue pic up?

Question

Its word math word problems

Answer 1

Alright, lets start by assigning some variables. Sue picked up x shells. Janel picked up y shells. From the word problem above Janel picked up twice as many shells as Sue, thus

 

y = 2x

 

We also know that together, they picked up 39 shells, i.e.

 

x + y = 39.

 

At this time, we will substitute in the fact that y = 2x into the second equation to get

 

x + 2x = 39    →   3x = 39 → x = 13.

 

Thus, Sue picked up 13 shells