Problema Solution
The difference of two numbers is 72. The larger number is three less than six times the smaller number. Find the numbers.
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'x' represent the smaller number, then '6x-3' represents the larger number and we have:
the problem wording "the difference of" is ambiguous and there are two possibilities:
72 = x - (6x-3)
solving for 'x' we have x = -13.8
or
72 = (6x-3)-x
solving for 'x' we have x=15
5*15+3=87
we assume that "the difference of" means "subtract the smaller number from the larger number", so that the smaller number is 15 and the larger number is 87