Thread: Beginning algebra help =(

1 - Find two numbers such that their difference is 250 and one is eleven times the other

2 - James gathered 12 quarts of nuts more than Henry gathered. How many did each gather if James gathered three times as many as Henry?

3- A house cost $2880 more than a lot of land, and five times the cost of the lot equals the cost of the house.
What was the cost of each?

4- Mr. A. is 48 years older than his son, but he is only three times as old. How old is each?


i need help please

Originally Posted by polandspring

1 - Find two numbers such that their difference is 250 and one is eleven times the other

2 - James gathered 12 quarts of nuts more than Henry gathered. How many did each gather if James gathered three times as many as Henry?

3- A house cost $2880 more than a lot of land, and five times the cost of the lot equals the cost of the house.
What was the cost of each?

4- Mr. A. is 48 years older than his son, but he is only three times as old. How old is each?

These are standard questions.
Post what you have done on each of them.
That way we are wiling to help you.
But we do not do your work for you.

but my teacher did not teach me this. my after school teacher gave this to me.

Originally Posted by polandspring

but my teacher did not teach me this. my after school teacher gave this to me.

Then you need to complain to you school authority about that.
We have nothing to do about that.

I can give you a quick overview of word problems.

As with any problem, be it engineering, math, language arts or math, you must first identify what they are asking.

Find two numbers such that their difference is 250 and one is eleven times the other.

Once you have identified this, in algebra you would usually make a variable for each unknown. Since there are 2 things they want and you don't know 2 of them, you need 2 variables.

Let x = the first number and y = the second number

You need one equation for every unknown 2 unknowns -> 2 equations.

What 2 numeric relationships can we find with the given information?

their difference is 250 'Difference' means subtract, 'is' means equals.

x-y=250

one is 11 times the other times obviously indicates multiply. Since we subtracted y from x, we need to let x be the bigger number. hence:

x = 11*y

now you have a system of equations. Do you know how to solve the system:

x = 11*y
x-y = 250

Originally Posted by polandspring

but my teacher did not teach me this. my after school teacher gave this to me.

Your "after school" teacher does not teach either; well, you're in trouble deep then...