Jackson has 4 more CDs than Amal. They have a total of 18 CDs. How many CDs does Amal have? How many CDs does Jackson have?
I am struggling to create an equation to represent these two people and their CD amounts.
It says to "Create a system of linear equations to represent the problem"
If Jackson has 4 more CDs than Amal, we can write this as a mathematical expression as follows:
Jackson = Amal + 4
If we know that the total number of CDs that Jackson and Amal have is 18, we can write this as an equation as follows:
Jackson + Amal = 18
Now we can substitute the first expression into the second equation to get the following:
(Amal + 4) + Amal = 18
If we simplify this equation by combining like terms, we get the following:
2 * Amal + 4 = 18
To solve for Amal, we can subtract 4 from both sides of the equation to get the following:
2 * Amal = 14
Finally, we can divide both sides of the equation by 2 to get the final answer:
Amal = 7
Therefore, Amal has 7 CDs and Jackson has 7 + 4 = 11 CDs.