Question

Together, tom and max have 72 football cards. Tom has 2 more than 4 times as many cards as Max has. How many football cards does tom have?

Answer 1

Max has x cards.
Tom has 2 more than 4 times as many as Max has, so Tom has 4 * x + 2.
Together they have 72 cards.

We can write it as an equation:

72 = x + 4 * x + 2
72 = x + 4x + 2
72 = 5x + 2 / - 2 (both sides)
70 = 5x / ÷ 5 (both sides)
x = 14

So Max has 14 cards and Tom has 4 * 14 + 2 = 56 + 2 = 58 cards.

58 + 14 = 72, so it's correct :)