Question

I suck at stuff like tis so can anybody help...

William, Xenia, Yvonne and Zach each brought the same number of small Easter eggs to a picnic. Between them they ate all the eggs: William ate 12, Xenia ate 10, Yvonne ste 5 more than she had brought, and Zach ate 1 fewer than he had brought. How many eggs were there in total?

Answer 1

let number of easter eggs brought by one person = x
Since the first line tells you that they ALL brought the same number of easter eggs to the picnic this would mean William brought x, Xenia brought x, Yvonne brought x and Zach brought x. So can you tell me how many x's there are in total?

Answer 2

x=4???

Answer 3

x does NOT equal to 4 but there are 4x's in total.

Answer 4

12=x 12x4

Answer 5

which =48

Answer 6

So the next step is to move onto forming an equation :)
So we know William ate 12,
Xenia ate 10,
Yvonne ate 5 more than she brought (Therefore 5 + x)
and Zach ate 1 less than he had brought (Therefore x - 1)
So now we add William + Xenia + Yvonne + Zach
To get 12 + 10 + 5 + x + x - 1
and we worked out at the beginning that William + Xenia + Yvonne + Zach = 4x right?
THEREFORE:
12 + 10 + 5 + x + x - 1 = 4x
Now solve for x.

Answer 7

10

Answer 8

not quite.
Try again! :)
What is 12 + 10 + 5 -1 + x + x ?

Answer 9

12+10+5-1+11+11=48

Answer 10

where is 11 coming from?

Answer 11

to make 48

Answer 12

... where is 48 from?

Answer 13

my brother is yelling it in my ear

Answer 14

oh well that's not quite right..
Do you know how to collect like terms? :)

Answer 15

no haven't learnt that yet