Eva and Liam are Reading a novel in their English class, Liam has read 17 less pages than Eva has, if they read 265 pages combined, how many pages has Liam read

Question

Eva and Liam are Reading a novel in their English class, Liam has read 17 less pages than Eva has, if they read 265 pages combined, how many pages has Liam read

Answer 1

Let the number of pages Eva has read be labeled as "E".

If Liam has read 17 fewer pages than Eva, that means he has read "E-17" pages.

Now, if they read 265 pages combined, we can express this as the below equation:

Eva's pages + Liam's pages = 265 pages

E + (E-17) = 265

Now we can solve for Eva's pages, and that will help us figure out how many pages Liam read.

E + (E-17) = 265

2E -17 = 265

2E = 282

E = 141

Eva read 141 pages. Liam read 17 fewer pages than she did: 141 - 17 = 124.

Liam read 124 pages.

You can double check your work by adding Eva's pages and Liam's pages together and see if it comes out to 265.

141 + 124 = 265 - correct!