Question

Jessica and Josh are selling Entertainment Books to raise money for the art room at their school. Jessica received the prize for selling the most books in the school. Jessica sold 15 times more books than Josh. Together they sold 256 books. How many did each one of them sell?

Answer 1

Answer:

Josh sold 16 books and Jessica sold 240 books

Step-by-step explanation:

Given: Jessica sold 15 times more books than Josh.

           Together they sold 256 books

To Find : How many did each one of them sell?

Solution:

Let Jessica sold x books

Let Josh sold y books.

Since we are given that Jessica sold 15 times more books than Josh.

⇒x=15y --a

We are also given that  Together they sold 256 books.

⇒x+y=256 --b

Using substitution method

Put value of x from equation a in equation b

⇒15y+y=256

⇒16y=256

⇒$y=\frac{256}{16}$

⇒$y=16$

Thus Josh sold 16 books

Jessica sold books = 15y = 15*16=240

Hence  Josh sold 16 books and Jessica sold 240 books

Answer 2

Assign a corresponding variable to Jessica and Josh. In this problem let’s assign x to Jessica then y to Josh. It says that Jessica sold 15 times more. The first working equation would be x = 15y. Since the two of them had total sales of 256 books, the second working equation is x + y = 256. Substituting the first equation on second equation, the answer would be Jessica sold 240 books while Josh sold 16 books.