Answer:
Pls read the whole thing so you can understand how i solved it (PS it's not actually that hard)
Explanation:
Ok so I suck at word problems loll but we just have to dissect the equation piece by piece to understand it. So, let's separate the word problem into groups:
A volunteer group picked up 3 times as many plastic bottles as cans in their community.
3(plastic bottles) x ____(cans)
The number of papers they picked up was 15 more than 14 of the number of cans. (*P.S. More than means add)
15 + 14 (more than cans)
If the volunteers picked up 288 cans, how many more plastic bottles than papers did they pick up?
288 cans
Okay, now that we know how many cans we have, we can solve the equation. First,
3(pb) • 288(c) = 864 (plastic bottles)
Second,
15 + 14 = 29 (*So, 29 more papers than cans were picked up)
Third(and final -phew),
How many more plastic bottles than papers? Okay, don't freak out- this is just a two-step solution.
There were 29 more papers than cans picked up, and how many cans were picked up? 288.
288 + 29 = 317 (*That means 317 papers were picked up)
We already solved how many plastic bottles were picked up, so we're almost done. 864 plastic bottles were picked up, remember?
864(pb) - 317(p) = 547
And so, your answer issssss *drumrolls*
547 more plastic bottles than papers were picked up!