Question

Four boys, Kurt, Marcus, Nathaniel, and Steven, all collect baseball cards. They recently met to show each other some of the cards they had collected. Each boy brought a different amount of cards with them. Nathaniel brought twice as many as Steven, Marcus had four less than Nathaniel, but one more than Kurt. All together, they have 47 cars. How many cars did Kurt bring?

Answer 1

Steven's cards = x

Nathaniel's cards = 2x

Marcus' cards = 2x - 4

Kurt's cards = 2x - 5

Since the sum of the cards is equal to 47, let's set all the cards equal to 47

x + 2x + 2x - 4 + 2x - 5 = 47

Combine like terms.

7x - 9 = 47

Add 9 to both sides

7x = 56

Divide both sides by 7

x = 8

Let's plug 8 into x for Kurt's cards.

Kurt's cards = 2x - 5 = 2(8) - 5 = 16 - 5 = 11 cards.