Tania bought 4 more pounds of pears than Wilma. Together, Tania and Wilma bought 18 pounds of pears. How many pounds of pears did Wilma buy?

2 Answers
Mar 1, 2018

Wilma bought 7 pounds of pears.

Explanation:

Let pounds bought by Wilma be x.
Then those bought by Tania will be x+4

So we have:

x+x+4=18
2x+4=18
2x=14
x=7

So Wilma bought 7 pounds of pears.

Mar 1, 2018

Tanya has 11 pounds of pears
Wilma has 7 pounds of pears

Explanation:

Let Tania's pounds of pears be t

Let Wilma's pounds of pears w

The first sentence, "Tania bought 4 more pounds of pears than Wilma" can be written as:

t=w+4

The second sentence, "Tania bought 4 more pounds of pears than Wilma" can be written as:

t+w=18

So, the two equations we have are:

t=w+4
t+w=18

Multiply the second equation by -1

t=w+4

-t-w=-18

Now, we add both the simultaneous equations:

(t)+(-t)+(-w)=(4)+(-18)+(w)

t-t-w=4-18+w

t and -t cancel out:

-w=-14+w

-2w=-14

2w=14

w=7

Now that we have one variable, we can substitute it inside any one of the equations. Let us take the first equation, as t is alone, and it would be easier to manipulate it:

t=w+4

Since w=7:

t=7+4

t=11

Thus, Tanya has 11 pounds of pears.
Thus, Wilma has 7 pounds of pears