Question

Last month Maria hiked the 5-mile mountain trail a number of times and she hiked the 10-mile canal trail several times. Let x represent the number of times she hiked the 5-mile trail, and let y represent the number of times she hiked the 10-mile trail. If she hiked a total of 90 miles, which equation can be used to find the number of times Maria hiked each trail?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

If she hiked the 5-mile trail

x

times, she would have walked

5

x

miles in total.

Likewise, if she hiked the 10-mile trail

y

times, she would have walked

10

y

miles as she did so.

Since we know the total of her walking was 90 miles, we can write the above equation, linking together the information.

Without additional information about

x

and

y

(such as being told she went hiking 12 times in all, for example) we cannot come to a definite statement about the values of

x

and

y