Question

There are two containers of milk. There is twice as much milk in the first container as in the second. After using 2 gal. of milk from the second container and 3 gal. of milk from the first container, the second container had 4.5 times less milk than the first. How many gallons of milk were in both containers originally?

Answer 1

Set equations for both containers:
Condition one: $y=2x$
Condition two: $(y-3)=4.5(x-2)$
plug in $y$ from condition one into the second equation:
$2x-3=4.5x-9$
simplify gives: $2.5x=6$
$\boxed{x=2.4}$
$\boxed{y=4.8}$

Answer 2

4.8 gallons in the first container, 2.4 in the second container.