how many ads did they recieve

Question

On October 16, the Moore family received 23 pieces of mail, consisting of ads, magazines, bills, and letters. If they received three more magazines than bills, five more letters than magazines, and the same number of ads as bills, how many ads did they receive?

Answer 1

For this problem, we will set the number of ads to x. Following this, we will represent the magazines, letters, and ads in terms of the number of bills.

Bills = x

Magazines = x + 3

Letters = 5 + x + 3

ads = x

Together, all of these will equal 23. Therefore, we will add everything we know together on one side of the equation and set this equal to 23.

x + x + 3 + 5 + x + 3 + x = 23 Combine like terms

4x + 11 = 23 Get 4x by itself.

4x = 12 Solve for x

x = 3

The Moore family received 3 ads.