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

600 because what is half 1200