Question

The first car of the d-line train carried 1.5 times the number of passengers the the second car carried.Three passengers get out of the first car at Newton Center and two passengers get into the second car at the same station.After this stop both cars had an equal number of passengers.How many passengers were in each car before the Newton Center stop?

Answer 1

Let the initial numbers of passengers be f and s respectively.  Then f = 1.5s.

The second equation is    f - 3 = s + 2.  Replacing f with 1.5s, we get:

1.5s -3 = s + 2.  Combining like terms, 0.5s = 5, and s = 10.  Then f = 15.

Before the Newton Center stop, there were 15 passengers in the first car and 10 in the second.