Maths - ALgebra

Question

Jenny has 2 more stamps than she needs in order to have 1/3 of the stamps that lara has. Jenny is 8 stemps short of having half the stamps that lara has. How many stamps does Jenny have?

Answer 1

First we need to translate the word problem into equations.

Let x = the number of stamps that Lara has.

Jenny's equations:

(1) x/3 + 2

(2) x/2 - 8

We know that we need to find how many stamps Jenny has. The goal (algebraically) is to find x and substitute x into Jenny's equations.

x/3 + 2 = x/2 - 8 (Set (1) and (2) equal to each other to find x)

x/2 - x/3 = 10 (Rearrange)

6(x/2 - x/3) = 10 * 6 (Multiply both sides by 6)

3x - 2x = 60 (Simplify)

x = 60

So we know that Lara has 60 stamps. Now we plug this into Jenny's equations to find how many stamps she has.

(1) : 60/3 + 2 = 22

or

(2) : 60/2 - 8 = 22

Therefore, Jenny has 22 stamps.