An athlete ran 1200 laps around the track over a two month period. he ran 4 times the number of laps in the second month. how many laps did the athlete run in the first month?

First make an equation from the information given:
Lets say x is the number of laps in the first month.
How would we express what x is in relationship to the total laps.
Well:
1200= laps in the first month + laps in the second month
we know that laps in the second month is equal to 4 times the amount in the first month so:
1200= laps in the first month + 4*laps in the first month
we already decided x=laps in the first month so we can write our equation as:
1200=x+4x
now solve!
x+4x simplifies to 5x
so now we have:
5x=1200
now divide the 5 over and you get
x= 240
so 240 laps were ran in the first month!
you can plug the x value back into the equation to double check it:
(240)+4(240)=1200
1200=1200

The skating rink rented 872 pairs of skates during april and may.why? : if the skating rink rented three times the pair of skates in april during may, they rented 654 skates. 218 x 3 = 654then, if they want to know how many they rented during both april and may, then you just add 654 (may) and 218 (april) to give you 872 pairs of skates for both months.654 + 218 = 872hope this !