The coach of the relay race team promised his athletes a reward if they win gold or silver. the reward is divided up relative to speed. jenny got a sixth of the pot, katherine a fifth. how big was the total reward sum, if katherine got $ 1,499 more than jenny?

So, let's name the full pool of money"x"

we know that Jenny got x/6 and that Katherine got x/5.

We also know that Katherine got more:

x/5-1.499=x/6.

So we just need to solve this equation!

Let's multiply everything by 30:
6x-30*1499=5x

6x-44970=5x

let's substitute 5x from both sides:
x-44970=0

so
x=44970
which is the correct answer!