In a soccer match, two players played a combined total of 115 minutes. If the first player played 35 more minutes than the second, for how many minutes did the second player play?
We’re gonna take the information we’re given — the statements — and turn them into expressions. Two players played a combined total of 115 minutes: we’ll let 𝑎 be the minutes played by player one and 𝑏 be the minutes played by player two. Their combined total is 115. That means 𝑎 plus 𝑏 equals 115. The first player played 35 more minutes than the second player: more than the second tells us that player 𝑎 has to equal player 𝑏’s minutes plus 35 more. We can take this 𝑏 plus 35 and substitute that for 𝑎 in our original equation.
Our new equation says 𝑏 plus 35 plus 𝑏 equals 115. Since we’re only dealing with addition, we don’t need those parentheses. To simplify, we subtract 35 from both sides of the equation. 115 minus 35 equals 80. 𝑏 plus 𝑏 equals 80. We can simplify 𝑏 plus 𝑏 by calling it two 𝑏. From there, we divide both sides of the equation by two because we want to get this 𝑏 by itself. Two 𝑏 divided by two equals 𝑏 and 80 divided by two equals 40.
Remember that we’ve let our variable 𝑏 be equal to the minutes played by player two. Our question is asking, “How many minutes did the second player play?” Based on the given information, we can say that the second player played for 40 minutes.