Answer:
The items were on Johnny's list was <u>5</u> and Bobby's <u>13</u>.
Step-by-step explanation:
Given:
Bobby's christmas list had 3 more times as many items on it than Johnny's list.
Johnny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby.
Now, to find the number of items were on Johnny's and Bobby's christmas list.
Let the number of items on Johnny's list be
.
And let the number of items on Bobby's list be
.
So, as given in question:
<u>Bobby's christmas list had 3 more times as many items on it than Johnny's list:</u>
.......( 1 )
<u>And, Johnny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby:</u>

Now, putting the value of
from equation ( 1 ) in the place of
:
⇒ 
⇒ 
<em>Adding 5 on both sides we get:</em>
⇒ 
<em>Subtracting
on both sides we get:</em>
⇒ 
Thus, <u><em>Johnny's list = 5 items</em></u>.
Now, putting the value of
in equation ( 1 ) we get:

⇒ 
⇒ 
⇒ 
Hence, <em><u>Bobby's list = 13 items</u></em>.
Therefore, the items were on Johnny's list was 5 and Bobby's 13.