This is a simple question, but I had to reverse engineer the question to arrive at the solution. The "trading" part is throwing me off. Can someone please write the algebraic equation for this question? Thanks
"John and Mark each own a collection of baseball cards. The two collections combined contain 120 cards. If John were to trade 5 cards to Mark and Receive 2 of Mark's cards in return, John would have 22 more cards than Mark does. How many cards does Mark possess before the proposed trade?"
Here is how I set it up. Please let me know where I slipped.
1. J+M= 120 ~~~~~~~ J= 120-M
2. J-5+2= M-2+5+22
3. J-3= M+25
4. J= M+28
5. 120-M= M+28
6. 96= 2M
7. M= 46
Somehow the answer is 45. What went wrong?
"John and Mark each own a collection of baseball cards. The two collections combined contain 120 cards. If John were to trade 5 cards to Mark and Receive 2 of Mark's cards in return, John would have 22 more cards than Mark does. How many cards does Mark possess before the proposed trade?"
Here is how I set it up. Please let me know where I slipped.
1. J+M= 120 ~~~~~~~ J= 120-M
2. J-5+2= M-2+5+22
3. J-3= M+25
4. J= M+28
5. 120-M= M+28
6. 96= 2M
7. M= 46
Somehow the answer is 45. What went wrong?
