roy and james had 1850 cards after roy gave 220 of his cards to shawn roy had 4 time as many cards as james how many cards did roy have at first

Question

Please help me in solving this, thanks

Answer 1

Let r = Roy and s j = James.

Here's what we know:

r + j = 1850 (Roy and James had 1850 cards altogether)

r - 220 = 4j (When Roy got rid of 220 cards, he ends up having 4 times as many as James)

 

This problem is just asking to be solved through substitution. The question is which way with the multitude of options. Well, I'm going to add 220 to both sides in the second equation myself, though other possibilities include subtracting one of the variables in the first equation or dividing both sides by 4 in the second.

 

But back to my choice:

r = 4j + 220

Now that we have a value for a variable, we can put it into the other equation:

4j + 220 + j = 1850

Combine like terms:

5j + 220 = 1850

Subtract 220:

5j = 1630

Divide by 5:

j = 326

 

From here, you can use James' cards to find Roy's.