SOLUTION: The average of the salaries of Kelly, Renee and Nina is 20,000 a year. If Kelly earns 4000 less than Renee and Nina's salary is two-thirds of Renee's salary, find the salary of ea

Question 340424: The average of the salaries of Kelly, Renee and Nina is 20,000 a year. If Kelly earns 4000 less than Renee and Nina's salary is two-thirds of Renee's salary, find the salary of each person.
I've tried setting up as follows;
Let R = Renee
Let R - 4000 = Kelly
Let 2/3 * R = Nina
R + ( R - 4000 ) + 2/3 * R = 20,000
It's not working out for me though. Anyone have any thoughts?
Found 4 solutions by Fombitz, jim_thompson5910, alanc, solver91311:
Answer by Fombitz(32388)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You're on the right track.
However there is one mistake.
The average is,

.
.
.

Multiply both sides by .

Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You have the correct expressions, but you forgot to divide by 3 when you averaged the salaries. So you should have the equation

Note: You should get the answer R=24000 (ie Renee's Salary is $24,000)

If you need more help, email me at jim_thompson5910@hotmail.com

Also, feel free to check out my tutoring website

Jim
Answer by alanc(27)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Your last equation is wrong. you don't sum the salaries to get the average. it should be divided by 3.
so
[R + ( R - 4000 ) + 2/3 * R ]/3 = 20,000

[R + R + 2/3 * R - 4000]/3 = [8R/3 - 4000]/3 = [8R/3 - 4000]/3 = 20000
[8R/3 - 4000] = 60000
64000 = 8R/3

R = 64000* 3 /8 = 8000* 3 = 24000
Rene makes 24,000
Kelly makes 20,000
Nina makes 16,000

Answer by solver91311(24713)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

You are SOOOOOO close. Consider this: How do you compute the average? You add up all of the items and divide by the number of items. That means that if the average of 3 things is 20,000, then the sum of the three things has to be 60,000.

So, instead of

You need

I'll leave the rest to you since the solution is quite straightforward from here. Write if you get stuck again.

John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it

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