Question

Erin has x working toys and y broken toys. Bert plays with Ernie's toys and breaks 1/3 of the working toys. Ernie then throws aways 1/4 of all of the broken toys. In terms of x and y, how many toys did Ernie throw away,

Answer 1

y/4 + x/12

Explanation:

The number of working toys = x

The number of broken toys = y

Bert breaks 1/3 of the working toys, that is:

1/3 * x = x/3

The number of broken toys is now:

y + x/3

Ernie then throws away 1/4 of the broken toys. In terms of x and y, the number of broken toys that Ernie threw away is:

1/4 *(y + x/3)

= y/4 + x/12