Question

Alecia has collected 25 erasers and plans to add 5 each month to her collection. Marissa has no erasers yet but plans to collect 10 each month. Will the girls ever have the same number of erasers? If so, how many months will it take them to collect the same number?

Answer 1

1. Yes

2. After 5 months

Explanation:

In this question, we are looking at a case of two eraser collectors and trying to see if their collections would ever be the same number.

To the first question, yes! Their collections would be the same at a particular point in time.

Since the number of months is the same, let’s call this x

Alecia’s collections after x months will be 25 + 5(x)

For Marissa, her collection after x months will be 10x

Now these two are equal at x months

Mathematically;

25 + 5x = 10x

10x - 5x = 25

5x = 25

x = 25/5

x = 5 months