Question

Al, Bill, Dill, and Will ate some apples. Each of them ate a different

number of apples, and each of them ate at least two apples. However,
their father ate even more than they ate together; he ate 15. (Maybe
they were rather small apples!)
Could one of the boys have eaten more than five apples?

Answer 1

Yes

Explanation:

let x = one boy

let y = another boy

let z = a third boy

x + 2 + y + 2 + z + 2 = 15 Combine like terms

6 + x + y + z = 15 Subtract 6 apples from both sides

x + y + x = 9

When we subtract out the 2 apples each brother know that they ate at lease 2 apples each we are left with a total of 9 apples.

One boy could have eaten 4 additional apples? Yes.

4 + 1 + 1 < 9