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Question 1136865: An MTN cellular-phone user notices that her cellular phone accounts for three
consecutive months were significantly different. In May, her account was one and a half
times more than her account in June. Her account in July was R 50 more than her account in
June. In total, she spent R575 in cellular-phone accounts in the three months. What was her
account for each month?
Found 2 solutions by Theo, ikleyn:
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! i think you might have meant....
An MTN cellular-phone user notices that her cellular phone accounts for three
consecutive months were significantly different.
In May, her account was one and a half times her account in June.
Her account in July was R 50 more than her account in June.
In total, she spent R575 in cellular-phone accounts in the three months. What was her account for each month?
let x = the account in june.
then 1.5 * x = the account in may.
then x + 50 = the account in july.
you get x + 1.5 * x + x + 50 = 575
combine like terms and subtract 25 from both sides of the equation to get 3.5 * x = 525
solve for x to get x = 150
when x = 150, 1.5 * x = 225 and x + 50 = 200.
her account was 225 in may and 150 in june and 200 in july.
total for all 3 months was 225 + 150 + 200 = 575.
may was 225 and june was 150, so may was 1.5 * june.
july was 200 and june was 150, so july was 50 more than june.
solution looks good and is:
account in may was 225 and account in june was 150 and account in july was 200.
this assumed that you meant account in may was one and a half times account in june,
if you meant account in may was one and a half times MORE than account in june, you would get a diffferent answer.
in that case, x = june and may = x + 1.5 * x and july = x + 50.
you would then get x + 1.5 * x + x + x + 50 = 575 which results in 4.5 * x = 525 which results in x = 116 and 2/3.
you would then get.
may = 116 and 2/3 plus 1.5 * (116 and 2/3) = 291 and 2/3.
june = 116 and 2/3
july = 116 and 2/3 + 50 = 166 and 2/3.
the sum would then be 291 + 2/3 + 116 + 2/3 + 166 + 2/3 = 575.
the account in may minus the account in june would be 291 + 2/3 minus (116 + 2/3) = 175.
175 is the different and would be equal to 175 / (116 + 2/3) = 1.5 * the account.
bottom line:
you get a different answer if you meant the account in may was 1.5 times the acount in june than if you meant the account in may was 1.5 times more than the account in june.
take you pick which option you think you really meant.
may is 1.5 times june gets you account in may was 225 and account in june was 150 and account in july was 200.
may is 1.5 times more than june gets you account in may was 291.67 and account in june was 116.67 and account in july was 166.67.
i rounded the fraction to 2 decimal places which makes the total 575.01 rather than 575.
the reason i question what you meant is because, if i assume 1.5 times then i get a much cleaner answer than if i assume 1.5 times more.
Answer by ikleyn(52810)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! .
For your info:
In English, in distinction from many other languages, the statement
"In May, her account was one and a half times more than her account in June" (*)
means // (is equivalent to)
"In May, her account was two and a half times as much as  her account in June". (**)
For newcomers, it is a mystery, but in reality it is so.
Therefore and since English is so strange, avoid using the sentences of the type (*), replacing them
everywhere, where it is possible, by sentences of the type (**) - - - for CLARITY.
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