Question

Use this problem to answer the questions that follow: "Ms. Negin and Mrs. Weaver like Girl Scout cookies, although they do not share them with their students. Ms. Negin has 5 boxes and buys 3 boxes from her students every day. Mrs. Weaver has 21 boxes and plans to eat 1 entire box every day until they are gone. How many days will it take then to have the same number of boxes of cookies? How many boxes will they have on that day?"
Write an equation for the number of boxes of cookies that Ms. Negin has. *

Write an equation for the number of boxes of cookies that Mrs. Weaver has. *

How many days does it take them to have the same number of boxes?

How many boxes will they have on the day they have the same number of boxes?

sorry if this is a long question. I'm having trouble on this topic of my homework...

Answer 1

You can track the number though it would takes time.
N = Negin and W = Weaver

Day zero:
N = 5
W = 21

Day one:
N = 8
W = 20

Day two:
N = 11
W = 19

Day three:
N = 14
W = 18

Day four:
N = 17
W = 17

So it takes them 4 days to have the same number of boxed of cookies (17 boxes)

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Now for algebra part:

d stands for days

Equation for Negin would be N = 5 + 3d
(because for each day, Ms.Negin would get 3 more boxes)

and Weaver would be W = 21 - d
(because for each day, Mrs.Weaver would eat 1 box)

So to solve it algebraically, set N and W equals to each other, like this:

5+3d = 21 - d

Now solve for d:

add both sides by d:
5 + 4d = 21

subtract both sides by 5:
4d = 16

Now divide both sides by 4:

d = 4
so 4 days.

To find the number of boxes on 4th day, you can just plug in one equation: Let's go with Weaver's:
W = 21 - d
W = 21 - 4
W = 17

so 17 boxes.

Hope this helps!