Window cleaners have enough supplies to clean 21 windows per office building on a certain number of buildings. They can also clean the windows of a school with 42 windows. Altogether, there are enough supplies to clean 126 windows. How many office buildings can be washed? Identify the equation that would be used to solve this problem algebraically.
a. 21x - 42=126
b. 42x + 21=126*
c. 42x - 21=126
d. 21x + 42=126
The equation that would be used to solve this problem algebraically is:
b. 42x + 21=126
The correct equation that would be used to solve this problem algebraically is:
b. 42x + 21 = 126
Where x represents the number of office buildings.
To solve this problem algebraically, we need to set up an equation that represents the given information. Let's assume that the number of office buildings is represented by x.
According to the problem, each office building has 21 windows. So, the total number of windows in the office buildings would be 21x.
In addition to the office buildings, we also have a school with 42 windows.
Therefore, the total number of windows that can be cleaned using the available supplies is 21x + 42.
We are told that there are enough supplies to clean 126 windows, so we can write the equation as:
21x + 42 = 126
From the given options, the equation that represents this problem algebraically is b. 42x + 21 = 126.
To solve this equation, we can subtract 42 from both sides:
21x + 42 - 42 = 126 - 42
21x = 84
Finally, we can divide both sides by 21 to solve for x:
x = 84/21
x = 4
Therefore, there are 4 office buildings that can be washed using the available supplies.