Question

Cycle Paths, Inc. makes bicycles, tricycles, and unicycles. Last week they made 88 more bicycles than unicycles, and 5 times as many tricycles as unicycles. If they made 40 more bicycles than tricycles, how many unicycles did they make.

Answer 1

Let B = no. of bicycles, U = no. of unicycles and T = no. of tricycles. Then you're told that:

B = 88 + U
T = 5U
B = 40 + T.

But T=5U, so B = 40 + 5U
So since B = 88 + U, you know that
40 + 5U = 88 + U, so 4U = 48. From there you can work out what all of U, B and T are, and check that all three equations work.