Jackson has 4 more CDs than Amal. They have a total of 18 CDs. How many CDs does Amal have? How many CDs does Jackson have?

Question

I am struggling to create an equation to represent these two people and their CD amounts.
It says to "Create a system of linear equations to represent the problem"

Answer 1

If Jackson has 4 more CDs than Amal, we can write this as a mathematical expression as follows:

Jackson = Amal + 4

If we know that the total number of CDs that Jackson and Amal have is 18, we can write this as an equation as follows:

Jackson + Amal = 18

Now we can substitute the first expression into the second equation to get the following:

(Amal + 4) + Amal = 18

If we simplify this equation by combining like terms, we get the following:

2 * Amal + 4 = 18

To solve for Amal, we can subtract 4 from both sides of the equation to get the following:

2 * Amal = 14

Finally, we can divide both sides of the equation by 2 to get the final answer:

Amal = 7

Therefore, Amal has 7 CDs and Jackson has 7 + 4 = 11 CDs.