There were 6 times as many middle school students as elementary students signed up for a spelling bee competition. If 95 more elementary students had signed up, there would have been an equal number of middle school and elementary school students. How many students signed up for the spelling bee competition?
Q. There were 6 times as many middle school students as elementary students signed up for a spelling bee competition. If 95 more elementary students had signed up, there would have been an equal number of middle school and elementary school students. How many students signed up for the spelling bee competition?
Define Variables: Let's define the number of elementary students as E and the number of middle school students as M. According to the problem, there are 6 times as many middle school students as elementary students, so we can write the first equation as:M=6E
Form Equations: The problem also states that if 95 more elementary students had signed up, there would have been an equal number of middle school and elementary school students. This gives us the second equation:M=E+95
Solve Equations: Now we have a system of two equations:1) M=6E2) M=E+95We can set the right-hand sides of these equations equal to each other since they both equal M:6E=E+95
Subtract and Divide: To solve for E, we subtract E from both sides of the equation:6E−E=955E=95
Find Elementary Students: Now we divide both sides by 5 to find the number of elementary students (E):E=595E=19
Find Middle School Students: Now that we have the number of elementary students, we can find the number of middle school students by using the first equation M=6E: M=6×19M=114
Calculate Total Students: To find the total number of students signed up for the spelling bee competition, we add the number of elementary students E and the number of middle school students M: Total students=E+M Total students=19+114 Total students=133