Question

Liang bought a basket of apples to make pies for her friends. The basket of apples weighed pp pounds. Before she had time to make the pies, she ate 33 pounds of apples. There are 1717 pounds of apples left to make pies. Write an equation to describe this situation. What was the total weight of the basket of apples?

Answer 1

The required equation:
`p-3=17`.

Total weight of the basket of apples = 20 pounds.

Explanation:

Let the weight of basket of apples be p pounds.

We have been that Liang ate 3 pounds of apples, before she had time to make the pies. So the amount of apples left after eating pounds will be:
`p-3`.

We are also told that after eating 3 pounds of apples, there are 17 pounds of apples left to make pies. We can represent this information as:

`p-3=17`

Therefore, the equation
`p-3=17` represents the number of apples left to make pies.

Let us solve for p by adding 3 to both sides of our equation.

`p-3+3=17+3`

`p=20`

Therefore, the total weight of the basket of apples was 20 pounds.