Question

two crates contain Apple's, pears and oranges. there are 184 apples and pears in crate one and 248 apples and oranges in the second crate. there are 3 times as many oranges as pears. how many apples are there altogether?

Answer 1

Answer: There are 152 apples.

The explanation is shown below:

- You need to write the following three equations, where $a$ is the the number of apples, $p$ is the number of pears and $o$ is the number of oranges:

1) $a+p=184$

2) $a+o=248$

3) $o=3p$

-  You must substitute the equation 3) into the equation 2):

 $a+3p=248$

- Now, you need to solve for $p$ in the equation 1) and then you must substitute it into $a+3p=248$:

$p=184-a$

$a+3(184-a)=248$

- Solve for $a$, as following:

$a+552-3a=248\\-2a=-304\\a=\frac{-304}{-2}\\a=152$

- Therefore, there are 152 apples.