Cycle Paths, Inc. makes bicycles, tricycles, and unicycles. Last week they made 88 more bicycles than unicycles, and 5 times as many tricycles as unicycles. If they made 40 more bicycles than tricycles, how many unicycles did they make.
Let B = no. of bicycles, U = no. of unicycles and T = no. of tricycles. Then you're told that:
B = 88 + U
T = 5U
B = 40 + T.
But T=5U, so B = 40 + 5U
So since B = 88 + U, you know that
40 + 5U = 88 + U, so 4U = 48. From there you can work out what all of U, B and T are, and check that all three equations work.
To solve this problem, let's use algebra to represent the number of unicycles, bicycles, and tricycles made by Cycle Paths, Inc.
Let's call the number of unicycles "x". Then the number of bicycles made would be "x + 88" because it states that they made 88 more bicycles than unicycles. Similarly, the number of tricycles made would be "5x" since it states that they made 5 times as many tricycles as unicycles.
Now, we are given that they made 40 more bicycles than tricycles. So we can set up the following equation:
x + 88 = 5x + 40
By simplifying and rearranging the equation, we can solve for "x", which represents the number of unicycles:
88 - 40 = 5x - x
48 = 4x
Dividing both sides of the equation by 4, we find:
x = 12
Therefore, Cycle Paths, Inc. made 12 unicycles.