SOLUTION: Neil and Lucy had a total of 200$. After Neil spent 50$, he had 3times as much as Lucy. How much did Neil have?

Click here to see ALL problems on Expressions-with-variables

Question 1161784: Neil and Lucy had a total of 200$. After Neil spent 50$, he had 3times as much as Lucy. How much did Neil have?
Found 3 solutions by ikleyn, math_helper, greenestamps:
Answer by ikleyn(52893)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.

x = Neil 200-x = Lucy. x - 50 = 3*(200-x) x - 50 = 600 - 3x x + 3x = 600 + 50 4x = 650 x = 650/4 = 162.50. ANSWER. Neil had initially $162.50.

------------

Post-solution note:

The question in the post is posed very sloppy.

Answer by math_helper(2461)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

You will look for two equations in two unknowns.
The first equation is Neil (N) plus Lucy's (L) total amount:
N + L = 200 (1)
The 2nd equation comes from the info about Neil spending $50 then having 3 times Lucy's amount:
N - 50 = 3L (2)
These can be solved for L and N. For example, I solved (2) for N (N = 3L+50) and then substituted the RHS for N in (1) which gave me L=$37.50, then using this value of L in (1) I computed N=$162.50
I've checked these values meet the two conditions, and you should too.

Answer by greenestamps(13209)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Let x be the amount Lucy had.

Then the amount Neil had (at the beginning) was 3x+50. (After spending $50, he had 3 times as much as Lucy.)

Together in the beginning they had $200:

The amount Neil had at the beginning was 3x+50 = $112.50+$50 = $162.50.

(or, the amount he had at the beginning was $200-$37.50 = $162.50)