Barry wants to make a huge salad using only cucumbers and tomatoes. He will use a total of 280 pieces of vegetables. If there are thrice as many tomatoes as cucumbers, how many cucumbers will be used in the salad? Let's be accurate as possible.
User
Let c be the number of cucumbers and t the number of tomatoes. The total is the sum of the number of cucumbers and that of tomatoes, which is c + t = 280 piece of vegetables. Since there are thrice as many tomatoes as cucumbers, this means c = t / 3. Therefore 3 * c = t. The sum will therefore be c + 3 * c = 280 pieces of vegetables. This means that 4 * c = 280 vegetables. Therefore c = 280 / 4 = 70 cucumbers.
The answer: 70.
Assistant