Question

A textbook store sold a combined total of 477 sociology and math textbooks in a week. The number of sociology textbois sold was 41 more than the number of

math textbooks sold. How many textbooks of each type were sold?

Answer 1

The correct answer is 218 math textbooks and 259 sociology textbooks.

Explanation:

To solve this problem, we can make a system of equations. Let the number of sociology textbooks sold be represented by the variable "s" and the number of math textbooks sold be represented by the variable "m". Using these variables, we can make two equations:

s + m = 477

m + 41 = s

There are many ways to solve this system of equations. One approach we can take is substituting the value for s given by the second equation into the first equation. This is modeled below.

s + m = 477

(m + 41) + m = 477

Combining like terms on the left side of the equation yields:

2m + 41 = 477

Subtracting 41 from both sides of the equation gives us:

2m = 436

Finally, dividing both sides of the equation by 2 gives us:

m = 218

To solve for the number of sociology textbooks, we can substitute into either of our original equations.

m + 41 = s

(218) + 41 = s

s = 259

Therefore, your answer is m = 218 and s = 259, or 218 math textbooks and 259 sociology textbooks were sold.

Hope this helps!