Karen wanted to find out how many chocolate bars Jake sold. Let x= the number of chocolate bars that Jake sold. Now we can use our information above to write expressions for Josie and Karen. Josie sold 36 more boxes than Jake so Josie sold (36 x) boxes of bars and Karen sold 3x boxes of bars. We know that Karen and Josie sold the same amount of chocolate bars, therefore the equation is: x 36=3x Next subtract x from both sides of the equation and simplify. x−x 36=3x−x 36= x Then, divide both sides by to solve for x . x= 18 Jake sold 18 boxes of chocolate bars. This also means that Karen sold 3(18) or 54 boxes of chocolate bars. As well, Josie sold (18 36) or 54 boxes of chocolate bars.