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Hi there. Four candidates means four variables: B, H, J, P. To solve for four variables, we need to find four equations from the information given: "Fifty votes were cast"
"Beth got 1/5 of the votes"
"Helen got as many votes as Jane and Peter put together"
"Peter got 1/3 as many votes as Jane"
So these are the four equations. Now do some substitutions into the top equation using the other equations. For example, If you substitution the third equation into the first, then the H in the first equation gets replaced by what H equals in the third equation, so you now have:
If you continue this substitution, you will end up with an equation you can rapidly solve for P, so you know the value of P. B is very easy and if you use these values of P and B in the equation above, you can quickly solve for J. Hope this helps, | ||||||||||||
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Math Central is supported by the University of Regina and The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences. |