Explanation:
ENGLISH syntax is important to math word problems:
Mike is polishing silver at his job. Michel, Joseph, Daniel and himself want to see how many spoons they can each polish. Michel polishes 5 times the number of spoons as Mike. Joseph polishes double the number of spoons of Michel and Daniel polished 3 less THAN mike. All together they polish 147 spoons. How many spoons did each person polish?
mi = 5 m
j = 2 mi = 10 m
d = m-3
m = m summed they equal 147
5 m + 10 m + m-3 + m = 147
17m = 150 <===== this does not compute ('m' is not a whole number)
Are you sure you have you description and number correct?