Write and solve an equation to find the amount of time Malik grills the asparagus.
Malik grills a steak minutes longer than he grills a serving of fish. The fish takes twice as long as the asparagus to grill. Malik grills halved tomatoes for minutes, which is minute longer than he grills the asparagus.
Let's use the following variables to represent the given information:
- Let S be the time in minutes taken to grill a steak.
- Let F be the time in minutes taken to grill a serving of fish.
- Let A be the time in minutes taken to grill the asparagus.
- Let T be the time in minutes taken to grill the halved tomatoes.
From the given information, we can create the following equations:
1. S = F + 3 (since Malik grills a steak 3 minutes longer than the fish)
2. F = 2 * A (since the fish takes twice as long as the asparagus)
3. T = A + 1 (since halved tomatoes take 1 minute longer than asparagus)
Also, we know that:
4. T = 5 (since it takes 5 minutes to grill the tomatoes)
Now we need to solve these equations to find the value of A, the time taken to grill the asparagus.
From equation 4, we can find the value of A:
A = T - 1 = 5 - 1 = 4 minutes
So Malik grills the asparagus for 4 minutes.