SOLUTION: PLEASE HELP ME WITH THESE TWO PROBLEMS I AM IN A BIG "?" WITH THEM. thank you if you can help me. # 3 A shopkeper orders a total of 56 pounds of cashews and peanuts. If the amo

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Question 84059: PLEASE HELP ME WITH THESE TWO PROBLEMS I AM IN A BIG "?" WITH THEM. thank you if you can help me.
# 3
A shopkeper orders a total of 56 pounds of cashews and peanuts. If the amount of cashews he orders is 32 pounds less tan the amount of peanuts, then how many pounds of peanuts does he order?

#9
Suppose that you are to cut a piece of ribbon for a wreath that is 120 inches long into two pieces so that one piece is 3 times as long as the other. How long is each piece of ribbon?
Answer by tutor_paul(519) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
#3: This is a problem with 2 equations and 2 unknowns. Anytime you have at least as many equations as you have unknowns, you can solve the problem! The trick is to use the words given in the problem to develop the equations.
The first sentence tells you the first equation. The word "and" is the + and the word "total" is the =.
Let P = Pounds of Peanuts, and
Let C = Pounds of Cashews.
From the first sentence, you know:
Equation #1: P+C=56
The second sentence tells you the second equation. The words "less than" is the - and "is" is the =.
Equation #2: C=P-32
Now that you have the 2 equations developed, you are good to go!
Plug the Expression for C from Equation #2 into Equation #1:

Solve for P:

Now that you know P, substitute the value of it into Equation #2:

Solve for C:

I will leave the second problem to you.
Good Luck,
tutor_paul@yahoo.com