Solving unknown three numbers

Question

Maya, Josh, and Tom served a total of 126 orders Monday at the school cafeteria. Tom served 4 times as many orders as Maya. Josh served 6 fewer orders than Maya. How many orders did they each serve?

Answer 1

Hello Daniela,

First, we want to create expressions to represent the number of order served by Maya, Josh, and Tom, okay? :

Therefore, let the following representations be true:

Let x equal the number of orders Maya served <--No information is given in the problem about Maya.

Let 4x equal the number of orders Tom served <--"Tom served four times as many orders as Maya."

Let x - 6 equal the number of orders Josh served <--"Josh served six fewer orders than Maya."

Again: The total number of orders served by the above three on Monday equal 126. Therefore, we want to add all three expressions setting them equal to 126, okay? Therefore,

x + 4x + x - 6 = 126

6x - 6 = 126

6x = 132

x = 22 <-----The number of orders Maya served on Monday

Tom

------

4(22) =

88 <--------The number of orders Tom served on Monday

Josh

x - 6 =

22 - 6 =

16 <---------The number of orders Josh served on Monday

Now, we want to check our work. If you do not do this on a regular basis, I highly recommend doing so.

The three values we came up with using the expressions we used to represent all three people, should equal 126. And, when we do add the three values; 22, 88, and 16, the sum is 126 orders.

I hope this helps you and that you have a great rest of the week. Should you want to leave feedback, seek further clarity on the solution I provided you, or have specific questions which relate to the solution, please feel free to click the "Add Comment," prompt and type your information in the dialogue box that will open and it will populate directly beneath this solution. Best!