Mr. Kohl has a beaker containing n milliliters of solution to distribute to the students in his chemistry class. If he gives each student 3 milliliters of solution, he will have 5 milliliters left over. In order to give each student 4 milliliters of solution, he will need an additional 21 milliliters. How many students are in the class?
Let c be the number of students in Mr. Kohl’s class.
The conditions described in the
question can be represented by the equations n=3c+5 and n+21=4c.
Substituting n=3c+5 in the second equation n+21=4c gives:
3c+5+21=4c
∴c=26
Hence, there are 26 students in the class.