SOLUTION: Sasha and Steve are sister and brother. Sasha has five times as many brothers as sisters, and Steve has twice as many brothers as sisters. How many girls and boys are there in this

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Question 1051483: Sasha and Steve are sister and brother. Sasha has five times as many brothers as sisters, and Steve has twice as many brothers as sisters. How many girls and boys are there in this family?
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
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First, we have to assume that "sister" and "brother" take on their commonly accepted gender identities and that there are no transgender issues in this particular family. Hence, we assume that Sasha is Steve's sister and Steve is Sasha's brother and that all of the siblings identified as sister are female while all of the siblings identified as brother are male.

Let represent the number of girls in the group of brothers and sisters and let represent the number of boys.

Since we are assuming Sasha is one of the sisters, and therefore female, the number of sisters she has must be one less than the number of girls in the family while the number of brothers she has is simply the number of boys.

In a similar fashion, the number of Steve's brothers is and the number of Steve's sisters is

Putting it all together, you get the 2X2 linear system:

Solve for and

John

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