Eric has twice as much money as Marcia, who has $175 less than Laurel. But Laurel has as much money as Eric and Marcia have together. How much money does each person have?
I really hate school but im trying to learn as much or this algebra word problem stuff as poosible so plz post more to help idiots like me ;)
Let's assign variables to the unknown amounts of money. Let's say Marcia has x dollars. Since Eric has twice as much money as Marcia, Eric would have 2x dollars. Laurel, on the other hand, has $175 more than Marcia, which means she has x + $175.
According to the last statement, Laurel has as much money as Eric and Marcia have combined. So, we can write the equation:
x + $175 = 2x + x
To solve this equation, let's simplify it:
x + $175 = 3x
Next, let's isolate x by subtracting x from both sides of the equation:
$175 = 2x
Now, divide both sides of the equation by 2:
$175 / 2 = x
Calculating this, we find:
$87.50 = x
So, we have determined that Marcia has $87.50.
To find out how much money Eric has, we can substitute the value of x into Eric's amount, which is 2x:
2 * $87.50 = $175
Therefore, Eric has $175.
Finally, let's find out how much money Laurel has. As given earlier, she has x + $175:
$87.50 + $175 = $262.50
So, Laurel has $262.50.
To summarize:
- Marcia has $87.50
- Eric has $175
- Laurel has $262.50
Solve this set of equations. The symbols M, L and E are the dollars held by each person with that initial.
E = 2 M
L = M +175
L = M + E
Clearly, E = 175. Take it from there.