Question

A barge can safely haul no more than 400 tons across the river. The barge has an empty weight of 24 tons. The average weight of the railroad cars is 4 tons each. How many railroad cars can the barge haul?

Answer 1

94

Explanation:

t = tons

Here's your initial equation. 400-24=4t

The empty weight means how much the barge itself weighs, so I've got to get rid of that.

I'm solving for the left side... 400-24 = 376

376=4t

Now I'll divide both sides by 4.

376/4=94

The barge can haul 94 railroad cars.

Answer 2

The barge can caul 94 railroad cars.

Explanation:

As the barge can safely haul no more than 400 tons across the river, and the barge itself has an empty weight of 24 tons, it has an available capacity of 376 tons (400-24). So, as every railroad car weighs 4 tons, in order to know how many railroad cars the barge can haul we have to divide the available capacity by the weight of each railroad car.

According to it, we have to divide 376 by 4 (376 / 4), which gives us a result of 94, which is the maximum number of railroad cars that the barge can haul.