Question

John and Julia work at a zoo and have to carry food to the tiger cages. Each trip John carries 40 pounds of food, and Julia carries 15 pounds from the food truck to the tigers. Combined, they took 17 trips to feed the tigers and carried a total of 505 pounds of food. How many trips did John and Julia each take?

Answer 1

John took 10 trips and Julia took 7 trips.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's assume that John took x trips and Julia took y trips.

From the given information, we can set up the following equations:

1. John carried 40 pounds of food per trip, so the total weight he carried can be represented as 40x.
2. Julia carried 15 pounds of food per trip, so the total weight she carried can be represented as 15y.
3. Combined, they took 17 trips and carried a total weight of 505 pounds of food, so we can write the equation 40x + 15y = 505.

We can substitute the value of y in terms of x from equation 3 into equation 2 to solve for x.

15y = 505 - 40x ⟨ multiply equation 2 by 40

15(17 - x) = 505 - 40x ⟨ substitute the value of y from equation 3

255 - 15x = 505 - 40x ⟨ distribute

25x = 250 ⟨ combine like terms

x = 10 ⟨ divide both sides by 25

Now that we have the value of x, we can substitute it back into equation 2 to find y:

15y = 505 - 40(10)

15y = 505 - 400

15y = 105

y = 7

Therefore, John took 10 trips and Julia took 7 trips.