Jane bought a harness, a big horse, and a small horse for $4,500 in total. The value of the harness and the big horse together was twice that of the small horse alone. What was the value of the small horse? Note: this problem doesn’t require fancy algebra. Try doing it in your head!
Solution
The algebra for this is simple. Call the value of the small horse . Then the value of the harness plus the large horse is . Everything together sums to $4,500. What is everything? It's or . In words, three times is $4,500, so is a third of this amount, or $1,500. This is the value of the small horse.
We are simply recognizing that the $4,500 is split into three equal parts, with two going towards the harness and big horse, and one going towards the small horse. The problem is to divide $4,500 by three, which is not that hard.