Final answer:
To find the value of 3a given that 2a + 4b = 5 and a = 3b, we first solve for b, which is 0.5. Subsequently, we find a to be 1.5. Multiplying a by 3 gives us 3a equal to 4.5.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question requires us to find the value of 3a given the system of equations where 2a + 4b = 5 and a is equal to three times b (a = 3b). We can solve this by substituting the second equation into the first to find the values of a and b.
Using a = 3b, we substitute into the first equation to get 2(3b) + 4b = 5. Simplifying this we get 6b + 4b = 5, which further simplifies to 10b = 5. Solving for b, we find b = 0.5. Now that we have the value of b, we can find a by substituting b back into the equation a = 3b, which gives us a = 3(0.5) = 1.5. Finally, to find 3a, we simply multiply the value of a by 3, which results in 3(1.5) = 4.5.