SOLUTION: A person caught 24 fish. Some are Rockfish, some are Bluefish. A rockfish weighs 2.5 lbs. and a bluefish weighs 8 lbs. Altogether the fish weigh 137 lbs. How many rockfish and

Question 183473This question is from textbook Addison Wesley Algebra
: A person caught 24 fish. Some are Rockfish, some are Bluefish. A rockfish weighs 2.5 lbs. and a bluefish weighs 8 lbs. Altogether the fish weigh 137 lbs. How many rockfish and how many bluefish were caught?
I don't know how to set this up as an equation. I figured that there are 10 rockfish and 14 bluefish, but don't know how to make this into an equation. Thank you for any help you can give me. This question is from textbook Addison Wesley Algebra

Answer by ptaylor(2198) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

OK.
ONE APPROACH:
Let x=number of rockfish
then 24-x=number of bluefish
2.5x+8(24-x)=137 get rid of parens
2.5x+192-8x=137 subtract 192 from each side
2.5x+192-192-8x=137-192 collect like terms
-5.5x=-55
x=10------------------number of rockfish
24-x=24-10=14-------------number of bluefish
ANOTHER APPROACH:
Let x=number of rockfish
And let y=number of bluefish
x+y=24--------------------------------eq1
2.5x+8y=137-----------------------------eq2
You can solve
Hope this helps----ptaylor
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