Answer:
- men: 37 minutes
- women: 59 minutes
Step-by-step explanation:
The problem statement is asking you to identify grooming times for men and for women. It is convenient to assign variables to these. I like to use variable names that help me remember what they stand for, so I would choose "m" and "w" as the variables representing grooming times (in minutes) of men and women, respectively.
The problem statement tells you the sum of these times is 96 minutes:
w + m = 96
and it tells you that the difference of these times is 22 minutes:
w - m = 22
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These two relationships give you enough information so that you can solve the equations for the values of w and m, as the problem requests.
We can rearrange the second equation to get an expression for w:
w = 22 + m
and we can use this expression in the first equation:
(22 +m) +m = 96
2m +22 = 96
This is a 2-step linear equation that can be solved in the usual way.
2m = 74 . . . . . . subtract 22 from both sides
m = 37 . . . . . . . divide both sides by 2
From our equation above, we can find w:
w = 22 +m = 22 +37
w = 59
On average women spend 59 minutes grooming each day; men spend 37 minutes.
