Question

Lance and Alex have 70 pencils. Lance has 4 times as many pencils as Alex. Alex's pencils are shared equally among 2 children. How many pencils does each child get?

Answer 1

let l = lance, and a = alex.

so: l + a = 70

and l = 4a

Putting the value for l in the first equation:

4a +a = 70

5a = 70

a = 14.

So Alex has 14 pencils. And Lance has (70-14) 56 pencils.

And if each child gets half of Alex' pencils, then each child will have 7 pencils.