Question

Tommy bought stamps at the post office. Some of the stamps had a snowflake design, some had a truck design, and some had a rose design. Tommy bought 14 snowflake stamps. He bought 5 more truck stamps than snowflake stamps, and 5 fewer rose stamps than truck stamps. How many stamps did Tommy buy in all? Show your work, how you came up with the answer.

Answer 1

47

Explanation:

s = Number of stamps with snowflake design = 14

Number of stamps with truck design is 5 more than snowflake design

`t=s+5\\\Rightarrow t=14+5\\\Rightarrow t=19\ \text{stamps}`

Number of stamps with rose design is 5 fewer than truck stamps

`r=t-5\\\Rightarrow r=19-5\\\Rightarrow t=14\ \text{stamps}`

Total number of stamps

`s+t+r=14+19+14\\ =47`

So total number of stamps Tommy bought is 47.