Question

A math class has a total of 28 students. The number of males is 14 more than the number of females. How many males and how many females are in the class?

Answer 1

There are 21 males, and 7 females.

Explanation:

We can get two equations from this, which we will use to solve it.

There are males and females, which can be represented by m and f. Males and females added together make 28, which can be written as:

m + f = 28

We also know that m, or the number of males, is equal to 14 more than f, or the number of females. This can be written as :

m = f + 14

Now that there's an established value for m, we can substitute, where we replace m with (f + 14) in the original equation. This leaves one variable, so then we can solve it.

(f + 14) + f = 28

2f + 14 = 28

2f = 14

f = 7

Now there's a concrete value for f, we can put it into the original equation again to find m.

m + 7 = 28

m = 21

And 7 + 21 does equal 28, so we can confirm it that way.