Question

George's page contains twice as many typed words as bills page and bills page contains 50 fewer words than Charlie's page. If each person can type 60 words per minute, after one minute, the difference between twice the number of words on bills page and the number of words on Charlie's page is 210. How many words did bills page contain initially? Use a table to organize the information.

Answer 1

We have three unknowns. So, let's assign variables for each of these unknowns:

Let:
x = number of words in George's page
y = number of words in Bill's page
z = number of words in Charlie's page

The equations formulated from the relationships would be:
x = 2y
y = z - 50
2(y - 60) - (z - 60) = 210

Simplifying the third equations:
2y - 120 - z + 60 = 210
2y - z = 210 + 120 - 60
2y - z = 270

Substituting eqn 2 to eqn 3:
2(z - 50) - z = 270
z = 370
y = 370 - 50 = 320
x = 2(320) = 640

Therefore, there are 320 words initially in Bill's page.