Question

A bookcase has two shelves. The top shelf has 10 more than 1/3 the number of books on the bottom shelf. There are 12 books on the bottom shelf. How many books are on the top shelf?
a.4
b.14
c.40
d.46
Show your work below!!!

Answer 1

Answer: b.14

Step-by-step explanation:

We have two shelves, the top shelf $s_{t}$ and the bottom shelf $s_{b}$.

Now, firstly we are told the top shelf has 10 more than 1/3 the number of books on the bottom shelf. This can be expressed as:

$s_{t}=10+\frac{1}{3}s_{b}$ (1)

Then, we are told there are 12 books on the bottom shelf:

$s_{b}=12$ (2)

Substituting (2) in (1):

$s_{t}=10+\frac{1}{3}(12)$ (3)

$s_{t}=10+\frac{12}{3}$ (4)

$s_{t}=14$ (5) This is the number of books on the top shelf

Hence, the correct option is b.