A child's sorting game has 31 shapes. Each piece is either a triangle or a square. The shapes have a total of 111 sides. Build a system of equations that can be used to find how many of each shape is used in the game.

Question

anonymous · Answer

3x+4(31-x)=111

x= number of triangles
(31-x)=number of squares

anonymous · Answer

Shouldn't it be x an y though?

anonymous · Answer

There are 13 triangles and 18 squares.

anonymous · Answer

No it's doesn't have to be x and y... having only one variable allows you to figure out how many of each there are.

anonymous · Answer

That's confusing. So can you put T and S? Or are you solving for something else?

anonymous · Answer

Well you know that there are 31 pieces right?

if T is amount of triangles...
then 31-t  is whatever is left over... which is the amount of squares...

You can't solve the equation if there are two variables. So you need to keep everything in terms of t.

anonymous · Answer

Okay so your solving for only one variable, right?

anonymous · Answer

yeah.. :)