The sum of three numbers is 69. If the second number is equal to the first diminished by 8, and the third number is 5 times the first. What are the numbers?
If x represents the first number, then which of the following equations could be used to solve the problem?
All 3 numbers must sum to 69, so we can draw out the second option [tex]x = 6x - 8[/tex]
Let the first number be x, adding 5x to the first x would give you 6x for the sum of the first and third numbers, therefore you can remove [tex]69 = 7x - 8[/tex] from your considerations as it includes 7x not 6x.
This leaves you with the one final answer [tex]69 = 6x - 8[/tex]
