Penny was looking at her clothes closet. The number of dresses she owned were 18 more than twice the number of suits. Together, the number of dresses and the number of suits totaled 51. What was the number of each that she owned?

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Answer 1 · 2016-05-07T12:30:53

Penny owns 40 dresses and 11 suits

Let #d# and #s# be the number of dresses and suits respectively.

We are told that the number of dresses is 18 more than twice the number of suits. Therefore:

#d = 2s + 18# (1)

We are also told that the total number of dresses and suits is 51. Therefore

#d+s =51# (2)

From (2): #d=51-s#

Substituting for #d# in (1) above:

#51-s=2s+18#
#3s=33#
#s=11#

Substituting for #s# in (2) above:
#d=51-11#
#d=40#

Thus the number of dresses #(d)# is 40 and the number of suits #(s)# is 11.