A high school band held a bake sale. The number of cupcakes sold was four more than twice the number of cookies sold. The band sold a total of 52 cupcakes and cookies. How many cupcakes were sold?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Ok...so what you want to do is assign a variable (ie. letter) to the number of cookies and the number of cakes sold.

anonymous · Answer

For example: 
1. let the number of cookies sold be x
2. let the number of cupcakes sold be y

anonymous · Answer

So from that you need to create an equation using the information in the question

anonymous · Answer

The question says that the total number of cookies and cupcakes sold was 52. So one equation might be x+y=52 (ie. the number of cookies sold + the number of cupcakes sold = 52)

anonymous · Answer

but...you still don't have enough information to figure out what y (no. of cupcakes sold is)

anonymous · Answer

so we need to try and look for another equation that we can create using the information in the question. We have already used the information that the total sold equals 52, but there is still "The number of cupcakes sold was four more than twice the number of cookies sold".

anonymous · Answer

We need to create an equation using this information...do you want to try?