Question

Solve the following word problem: Kay made 5 less phone calls today than Stephanie. If together they made 21 calls, how many calls did Kay make today?

Answer 1

Answer:
Kay made 8 phone calls
Stephanie made 13 phone calls

Explanation:
Assume the number of phone calls that Stephanie made is x.
We are given that:
Kay made 5 phone calls less than Stephanie.
This means that:
Kay made x-5 phone calls

We know that the total number of phones is 21.
This means that:
21 = x + x - 5

Now we solve for x as follows:
21 = x + x - 5
21 = 2x - 5
2x = 26
x = 26/2
x = 13

This means that:
Stephanie made x = 13 phone calls
Kay made x - 5 = 13 - 5 = 8 phone calls

Hope this helps :)