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Question 226264: Each girl in the Smith family has the same number of brothers as she has sisters. Each boy in the Smith family has twice as many sisters as he has brothers. How many girls and boys are there in the Smith family?
I've tried giving a general equation for each (boys and girls), but without a total, I am a little stumped. For example, my initial thoughts on putting the two statements into variables, etc results in:
b = 2b + g (first statement)
g = b + g (second statement)
But I don't think that's the right way to start. Any suggestions?
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! I think you got the right idea
:
Each girl in the Smith family has the same number of brothers as she has sisters.
For this to be true: g = b+1 (sisters 1 less than no. of girls)
:
Each boy in the Smith family has twice as many sisters as he has brothers.
For this to be true: 2(b-1) = g (brothers a 1 less than no. of boys)
:
How many girls and boys are there in the Smith family?
Replace g with b+1 in equation: 2(b-1) = g
2(b - 1) = b + 1
2b - 2 = b + 1
2b - b = 1 + 2
b = 3 boys
then using the 1st statement:
g = 3 + 1 = 4 girls
:
:
see if that is true:
girl has 3 brothers and 3 sisters (1st statement)
boy has 4 sisters, 2 brothers (2nd statement)
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