Question

Please can anyone help? We're doing simultaneous equations ad I'm a bit confused on how to get the second equation, I got 4s - 14 = 3s.

Answer 1

Let "C" be the original number of Sweets Charlie has and A be the original number of sweets that Anna has:

Charlie has 4 times as many sweets as Anna thus:
Equation 1: `C = 4 * A`

Charlie eats 14 sweets, Anna eats 2 sweets
`C -> C - 14` and `A-> A-2`

and after the change, Charlie has 3 times as many sweets as Anna thus:
Equation 2: `C - 14 = 3 * (A-2) = 3A-6`

`Eq.1 - Eq.2 = C - (C-14) = 4A -(3A - 6)`
`14 = A + 6`

`A = 8, A-2 = 6`
`C = 3*6 = 18`

Thus, Charlie now has 18 sweets and Anna now has 6 sweets.