There are 2 more than 3 times as many parrots as finches. If there are a total of 18 parrots and finches, how many are parrots and how many are finches

Question

2 more than 3 times as many parrots as finches. There’s a total of 18 parrots and finches. How many parrots and how many are finches.

Answer 1

Let P = number of parrots and F = number of finches. According the problem we have;

P = 2 + 3F (1)   and P + F = 18 (2) from the (2) we get  P = 18 - F (3) subtracting (3) from (1) we have;

(1) - (3) = >>>   0 = -16 + 4F  ==>>>  16 = 4F  ==>>>  F = 16/4   F = 4   putting where F = 4 to the (1)

we get;  P = 2 + 3 *4 = 14. so we have F = 4  and P = 14