john has twice as much money as peter ad peter has $60 more than james. if all three boys have a total of $600, how much does each boy have

Question

solve the word problem algebraically

Answer 1

Hi Celeste,

 

Let

x=John's money

y=Peter's money

z=James' money

 

Peter has $60 more than James so,

y=z+60

 

and John has twice as much money as Peter so,

 

x=2y

 

but we know that y=z+60 so,

 

x=2(z+60)

x=2z+120 

 

now,

x + y + z = 600

 

all you need to do is substitute x and y to get everything in terms of z and solve, then plug the answer for z back into the equations for x and y to get the amount of money each boy has