Question

Phil has 3 times as many rocks as Peter. Together, they have 48 rocks. How many more rocks does Phil have than Peter?

Answer 1

Peter= x
Phil=3x
Implies that 4x=48 which means x=12
Implies that Phil has 36 rocks
36-12=
24 more rocks

Answer 2

Let x = the number of marbles for Phil
Then 3x = the number of marbles for Peter
Together they have 3x+x=48 or 4x=48 and x=12
So Phil has x = 12 marbles and Peter has 3x, let x = 12, 3(12) = 36 marbles.
Peter has 24 more marbles than Phil.