The Blue Jays won 17 more games than they lost. They played 52 games in all and had 3 ties. How many games did they lose?
To find the number of games the Blue Jays lost, we need to calculate their win record.
First, let's subtract the ties from the total number of games played:
Total games played = 52
Now, let's define the win record:
Wins = Losses + 17
To solve for the number of losses, we can substitute this equation into the equation for the total games played:
Wins + Losses + Ties = Total games played
(Wins) + Losses + (Ties) = Total games played
(Wins) + Losses + 3 = 52
Now, substitute the value of wins from the win record equation:
(Losses + 17) + Losses + 3 = 52
Combine like terms:
2 Losses + 20 = 52
Subtract 20 from both sides:
2 Losses = 32
Divide both sides by 2:
Losses = 16
Therefore, the Blue Jays lost 16 games.
If they lost x games, then
x + x+17 + 3 = 52