Write an equation and solve for x.

On Monday, 449 students went on a trip to the zoo. All 9 buses were filled and 8 students had to travel in cars. How many students were on each bus?
x =
students

1 answer

To find out how many students were on each bus, let's set up an equation based on the information provided.

Let \( x \) be the number of students on each bus.

Since there are 9 buses and all are filled, the total number of students that can be accommodated by the buses alone would be \( 9x \).

According to the problem, there were 8 students who had to travel in cars, which means that out of the total 449 students, 441 students were on the buses. Therefore, we can set up the equation:

\[ 9x + 8 = 449 \]

Now, let's solve for \( x \):

  1. Subtract 8 from both sides:

\[ 9x = 449 - 8 \]

\[ 9x = 441 \]

  1. Divide both sides by 9:

\[ x = \frac{441}{9} \]

\[ x = 49 \]

Thus, the solution is:

\[ x = 49 \]

So, there were 49 students on each bus.