There are three kinds of fruit in a basket:apples, oranges, and pears. The number of apples is 1 less than the number of oranges. The number of pears is 2 times the number of apples. There are 17 fruits in the basket. How many of each kind are there?

Answer 1

No inequalities here.

a = o-1
p = 2a
a+o+p = 17
Let's find out how many oranges:

(o-1) + o + 2(o-1)) = 17
4o-3 = 17
4o = 20
o = 5

So, there are
4 apples
5 oranges
8 pears