Carlene saves $y. Sharon save 3 times as much money as Carlene. Jason saves $50 more than Sharon. How much do they have altogether?
C --> y
S --> 3 y
J --> 3 y + 50
y + 3 y + 3 y + 50 = 7 y + 50
7y+50 is how much they save. There's no base amount for any person so this equation of the total is how far you can take the problem. (The above answer of 400 makes the assumption that y ever equaled 50 but that was not stated anywhere in the initial problem.)
To find out how much they have altogether, we need to calculate the total savings of each person first.
Let's start with Carlene, who saves $y.
Then we have Sharon, who saves 3 times as much money as Carlene. This means Sharon saves 3 * y = 3y dollars.
Finally, we have Jason, who saves $50 more than Sharon. This means Jason saves 3y + $50.
To find the total savings, we add up the individual savings of each person:
Carlene: $y
Sharon: $3y
Jason: $3y + $50
The total savings is the sum of these amounts:
Total savings = Carlene's savings + Sharon's savings + Jason's savings
= y + 3y + (3y + $50)
Simplifying the expression, we get:
Total savings = y + 3y + 3y + $50
= 7y + $50
So, they have a total of 7y + $50 dollars altogether.