Question 906780
let y equal the number of passes he caught from young.
let m equal the number of passes he caught from montana.
let g equal the number of passes he caught from gannon.


your equations are:


y = m + 30
m = g + 39
g = g


since the total number of passes he caught from these 3 is 156, you have another equation that is shown below:


y + m + g = 156


if you replace m with g + 39, this formula becomes:


y + g + 39 + g = 156


if you replace y with m + 30, this formula becomes:


m + 30 + g + 39 + g = 156


combine like terms to get:


m + 69 + 2g = 156


since you know that m = g + 39, you can replace m with g + 39 to get:


g + 39 + 69 + 2g = 156


combine like terms to get:


3g + 108 = 156


now you have one equation with one unknown variable and you can solve for g in this equation.


subtract 108 from both sides of the equation to get:


3g = 156 - 108


combine like terms to get 3g = 48


divide both sides of the equation by 3 to get g = 16


you have g = 16
you know that m = g + 39 so you get m = 55
you know that y = m + 30 so you get y = 85


you now have:


g = 16
m = 55
y = 85


add them up and they total 156


since you know that y + m + g is equal to 156, this confirms the solutions are good.


your solutions are:


jerry rice caught 16 touchdown passes from rich gannon.
jerry rice caught 55 touchdown passes from joe montana.
jerry rice caught 85 touchdown passes from steve young.