Question

Carmen is an airline attendant. Last week, she worked on flights on 5 small jets and 3 large jets, which could seat a total of 440 passengers. The week before, she was assigned to flights on 3 small jets and 2 large jets, which could seat a total of 279 passengers. How many seats were on each type of flight?

Answer 1

Let s = small and l = large

5s + 3l = 440 (multiply by 2)
3s + 2l = 279 (multiply by 3)

10s + 6l = 880
9s + 6l = 837

Subtract the above from each other:
s = 43

Plug in s = 43 in a previous equation to get:
l = 75