Norman had 125 more seashells than Ashley. Jolene had half as many seashells as Ashley. If they had 765 seashells in all, how many seashells did Jolene have?
N = A + 125
J = A/2
N + J + A = (A+125) + A/2 + A = 765
Solve for A, then N and J.
Let's solve this step by step.
Let's assume the number of seashells Ashley had as 'A.
According to the problem, Norman had 125 more seashells than Ashley, so Norman had A + 125 seashells.
Jolene had half as many seashells as Ashley, so Jolene had A/2 seashells.
The total number of seashells they had altogether is given as 765, so we can set up the equation:
A + (A + 125) + (A/2) = 765
Now, let's solve for A:
Combining like terms, we get:
2A + A + 125 + A/2 = 765
Multiplying through by 2 to remove the fraction:
4A + 2A + 125 + A = 1530
Now, combining like terms again:
7A + 125 = 1530
Subtracting 125 from both sides:
7A = 1405
Dividing by 7:
A = 201.43
Since we can't have a fraction of a seashell, we can assume that Ashley had 201 seashells.
Now, let's find how many seashells Jolene had:
Jolene had half as many seashells as Ashley, so Jolene had A/2 = 201/2 = 100.5 seashells.
Since we can't have half of a seashell, Jolene had 100 seashells.
Therefore, Jolene had 100 seashells.