Sara went to the park and saw that there were a total of 15 bicycles and tricycles. If the total number of wheels was 39, how many tricycles were there?
bi = 2 wheels
tri = 3 wheels
Please help me, I'm really struggling with this problem
can anyone help me please
To solve this problem, we can use a system of equations. Let's start by defining our variables:
Let's call the number of bicycles "b" and the number of tricycles "t".
We know that the total number of bicycles and tricycles is 15:
b + t = 15 ------ Equation 1
We also know that the total number of wheels is 39:
2b + 3t = 39 ------ Equation 2
Now, we have a system of two equations with two variables. We can solve this system to find the values of "b" and "t".
To eliminate one variable, we can multiply Equation 1 by 2. By doing this, both equations will have "b" with the same coefficient, so we can subtract them:
2b + 2t = 30 ------ Equation 3
2b + 3t = 39 ------ Equation 2
By subtracting Equation 3 from Equation 2, we can eliminate "b":
(2b + 3t) - (2b + 2t) = 39 - 30
t = 9
So, there are 9 tricycles.
To find the number of bicycles, we can substitute the value of t (9) into Equation 1:
b + 9 = 15
b = 6
Therefore, there are 6 bicycles.
In summary, there are 6 bicycles and 9 tricycles at the park.