SOLUTION: Water consumption. Americans are buying more bottled water than ever before. At the time of this writing, the average American buys more bottled water than milk, coffee, or beer.

Question 1171130: Water consumption. Americans are buying more bottled water than ever before. At the time of this writing, the average American buys more bottled water than milk, coffee, or beer. In 2003, the average American purchased 76.4 gal of soft drinks and water. The amount of water was only 4.3 gal less than half of the amount of soft drinks.
How many gallons of water and how many soft drinks did the average American buy in 2003?

Answer by Theo(13342) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
w = number of gallons of water
s = number of gallons of soft drinks

in 2003, americans purchased 76.4 gallons of water and soft drinks.
equation for that is:
s + w = 76.4

amount of water was 4.3 gallons less than half the amount of soft drinks.
equation for that is:
w = .5 * s - 4.3

in the equation of s + w = 76.4, replace w with .5 * s - 4.3 to get:
s + (.5 * s - 4.3) = 76.4
simplify to get:
1.5 * s - 4.3 = 76.4
add 4.3 to both sides of the equation and simplify to get:
1.5 * s = 80.7
solve for s to get:
s = 80.7/1.5 = 53.8
subtract s from s + w to get:
76.4 - 53.8 = 22.6

your solution appears to be:
w = 22.6 and s = 53.8

to confirm, do the following:
s + w = 76.4 becomes 53.8 + 22.6 = 76.4 which becomes 76.4 = 76.4 which is true.
w = .5 * s - 4.3 becomes 22.6 = .5 * 53.8 - 4.3 which becomes 22.6 = 26.9 - 4.3 which becomes 22.6 = 22.6 which is true.
solution is confirmed to be good.

solution is 22.6 gallons of water and 53.8 gallons of soft drinks were consumed for a total of 76.4 gallons of water and soft drinks in 2003.

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