Question

Carl is boarding a plane. He has 2 checked bags of equal weight and a backpack that weighs 4 kg. The total weight of Carl's baggage is 35 kg.

Write an equation to determine the weight, w, of each of Carl's checked bags.

Answer 1

Answer: Weight of each of Carl's checked bags is 15.5 kg.

Explanation:

Since we have given that

Number of checked bags of equal weight = 2

Weight of a backpack = 4 kg

Total weight of Carl's baggage = 35 kg

Let the weight of checked bags be 'w'.

According to question,

`2w+4=35\\\\2w=35-4\\\\2w=31\\\\w=(31)/(2)\\\\w=15.5\ kg`

Hence, Weight of each of Carl's checked bags is 15.5 kg.

Answer 2

Carl has 3 bags in total. One backpack weighs 4 kg and the rest two checking bags have the equal weight. The total weight of 3 bags is given to be 35 kg.

Let the weight of each checking bag is w kg. So we can write:

2 x (Weight of a checking bag) + Weight of Backpack = 35

Using the values, we get:

2w+ 4 = 35

Using this equation we can find the weight of each checking bag, as shown below.

2w = 31

w = 31/2

w = 15.5

Thus, the weight of each checking bag is 15.5 kg