How many women and men math students are there

Math Central

Quandaries & Queries

Question from bing, a parent:

there are 38 math students. How many men and women strudents are there if the women exceeded one half of the men by 17?

Hi Bing.

Use algebra to solve this problem.

Let W = the number of women and M = the number of men.

Then

M + W = 38.

(1)

and

W = ½M + 17.

(2)

What happens when we subtract equation (2) from equation (1)?

M + W - W = 38 - (½M + 17)

M = 21 - ½M

1½M = 21

M = 14.

(3)

So using this value M = 14 in equation (2), we get:

W = ½M + 17 = ½(14) + 17 = 24.

(4)

That's how you solve these kinds of problems, Bing.

Hope this helps,
Stephen.

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