Question

Trina planted 43 plants in her garden last week. She planted twice as many cucumbers as zucchini and eight more tomatoes than cucumbers. Write and solve an equation to find the number of each kind of plant in her garden. If you need to, use the 5D process to organize your thinking. Be sure to define your variable.

Answer 1

She planted 7 zucchini, 14 cucumbers, and 22 tomatoes.

Let z = the number of zucchini planted.  Since she planted twice as many cucumbers as zucchini, 2z is the number of cucumbers.  She planted 8 more tomatoes than cucumbers, so 2z + 8 is the number of tomatoes.  This gives us the equation

z + 2z + 2z + 8 = 43

Combining like terms, we have
5z + 8 = 43

Subtract 8 from each side:
5z + 8 - 8 = 43 - 8
5z = 35

Divide both sides by 5:
5z/5 = 35/5
z = 7

There were 7 zuccchini; 2*7 = 14 cucumbers; and 14+8=22 tomatoes.