Question

A total of 603 tickets were sold for the school play. They were either adult tickets or student tickets. There was 53 more student tickets sold than adults. How many adult tickets were sold?

Answer 1

Answer: 275 tickets

Explanation:
Let S = the number of student tickets and A = the number of adult tickets.
Since only adult and student tickets exist, then you know that all of the 603 tickets have to be those. This means that A + S = 603.
Since you know that 53 more of S was sold than A, A + 53 = S.
You substitute (A + 53) for S in the equation A + S = 603 and get the equation A + A + 53 = 603.
This means 2A = 550.
A = 275.
Plus A back into the equation where A + 53 = S to find that S = 328.

Answer 2

The number of student tickets sold is half the total plus half the difference:
student tickets = (603 +53)/2 = 656/2 = 328

The number of adult tickets is 53 fewer, 275.