At Acme Inc., there are 3 more than twice as many sales people as inventors. If the whole company has 27 employees, how many inventors are there?

Question

Algebraic expression

Answer 1

Hi Shiela,

 

We have sales people and inventors

 

S = # sales people

I = # inventors

 

From the first sentence, we know

S = 2I + 3

 

From the 2nd sentence, we know

S + I = 27

 

If we substitute the expression 2I+3 for S in the 2nd equation, we have.

S+I=27

2I+3 + I = 27

3I+3=27

3I=24

I=8

 

So there are 8 inventors

Since the total number of employees is 27, then there are 27-8 = 19 sales people