Darryl organized his old school supplies into pencil boxes. He put 5 pencils in each box. He also put y erasers in each pencil box. After filling 6 pencil boxes, he had used a total of 54 items.

Question

What is the value of y?
54
y+5
y+5
y+5
y+5
y+5
y+5

y =

Answer 1

To find the value of \( y \), we first note the information given:

• Darryl filled 6 pencil boxes.
• Each pencil box contains 5 pencils and \( y \) erasers.
• The total number of items used is 54.

First, we calculate the total number of pencils used in the 6 boxes:

\[ \text{Total pencils} = 6 \times 5 = 30 \]

Since each box also contains \( y \) erasers, the total number of erasers in all 6 boxes is:

\[ \text{Total erasers} = 6 \times y = 6y \]

Now we can express the total number of items (pencils + erasers) used:

\[ \text{Total items} = \text{Total pencils} + \text{Total erasers} = 30 + 6y \]

According to the problem statement, the total number of items used is equal to 54:

\[ 30 + 6y = 54 \]

We can now solve for \( y \). First, subtract 30 from both sides:

\[ 6y = 54 - 30 \] \[ 6y = 24 \]

Next, divide both sides by 6:

\[ y = \frac{24}{6} \] \[ y = 4 \]

Thus, the value of \( y \) is \( \boxed{4} \).