Question

Satoshi and reginald together have 46 bottlecaps. if they were to receive 6 bottle caps each, satoshi would have three times as many bottle caps as reginald. how many bottlecaps does satoshi have?

Answer 1

we are given that

Satoshi and reginald together have 46 bottlecaps.

Let satoshi have x bottlecaps and reginald has y caps.

Then
`x+y=46`

They were to receive 6 bottle caps each, satoshi would have three times as many bottle caps as reginald.

Then
`x+6=3(y+6)`

Now solve these two equations together we get

`3(y+6)-6+y=46\\ \\ 3y+18-6+y=46\\ \\ 4y=46-12\\ \\ 4y=34\\ \\ y=8.5\\ \\ x=46-8.5=37.5\\`

The bottle caps can not be in fraction. But this is what we get after calculation.