Sentence equations

Question

A manager wants to separate his 25 employees into two teams. One team has seven fewer members than three times the other team. Find the number of employees on each team.

Answer 1

Let's define the number of employees on the first team as "n". That means the number of employees on the second team will be "25 - n". Three times the first team would be 3n. If we subtract 7 from 3n, we will have the number of members on team #2. That means 3n - 7 = 25 - n.

3n - 7 = 25 - n Then, add n to both sides to get:

4n - 7 = 25 Then, add 7 to both sides to get:

4n = 32 Now, divide both sides by 4 to get:

n = 8 So Team #1 has 8 members, and Team #2 has 25 - 8 = 17 members