Question 192154: How to write the equation for the following: 3000 books in three piles. Pile 1 has 10 more books than pile 2. Pile 2 has twice as many as pile 3. How many in each pile? This is my fourth graders homework and I can't remember how to make the into an equation to be solved. Thanks so much for your help!!
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Let x, y, and z be the number of books in piles 1, 2, and 3.
Since there are "3000 books in three piles", this means that 
Because " Pile 1 has 10 more books than pile 2", this tells us that 
Also, since "Pile 2 has twice as many as pile 3", this gives the equation 
Start with the given equation
 Plug in
 Plug in
 Combine like terms on the left side.
 Subtract  from both sides.
 Combine like terms on the right side.
 Divide both sides by  to isolate  .
 Reduce. So there are 598 books in the third pile
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Go back to the third equation
 Plug in
 Multiply. So there are 1,196 books in the second pile
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Go back to the first equation
 Plug in
 Add. So there are 1,206 books in the first pile.
To check the answers, simply add up the books to get 3,000.
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