Question

You have 2 positive numbers. One number is one-fifth of the other number. The difference between the two numbers is 228, find the numbers.

Answer 1

Hey there! I'm happy to help!

Let's call these numbers x and y and model the information we have.

x=1/5y

y-x=228 (we see that x is smaller than y in the first equation, so we put it second )

We see that x is equal to 1/5y. We can switch the x in the second equation with 1/5y and solve for y.

y-1/5y=228

4/5y=228

We divide both sides by 4/5.

y=285

We know that x is 1/5 of y, so we divide by 5.

285/5=57

x=57

So, our numbers are 57 and 285.

Have a wonderful day! :D