Question 886416
A man bought some eggs at x cents each.
 y of them were broken while the rest were sold at z cents each.
 If he made a total profit of w cents,
 find the number of eggs he bought using x,y,z, and w.
:
let t = total number of eggs bought
then
tx = original cost of the eggs
and
(t-y) = no. eggs sold
and
z(t-y) = amt he sold them for
:
total profit
z(t-y) - tx = w
Find original no. of eggs
-tx = w - z(t-y)
multiply both sides by -1
tx = z(t-y) - w
tx = tz - yz - w
tx - tz = -yz - w
factor out t
t(x-z) = -yz - w
t = {{{((-w-yz))/((x-z))}}}
you can factor out -1 from numerator and denominator and write it
t = {{{((w+yz))/((z-x))}}}; looks better without all those negatives