Butch, harry, and nicky are playing a game. harry has half as many points is butch. nicky has 5 fewer points than harry. together, the three players have 31 points. how many points does harry have?

Harry has 9 points. First, make some expressions to show what you know. I'll use the variables b, h, and n to represent the number of points each player has h = b/2 n = h - 5 b + h + n = 31 Substitute h - 5 for n in the 3rd expression b + h + h - 5 = 31 Now substitute b/2 for the h's in that expression b + b/2 + b/2 - 5 = 31 Now solve for b, first add the b terms together 2b - 5 = 31 Add 5 to both sides 2b = 36 Divide both sides by 2 b = 18 We now know that Butch has 18 points, so plug that value into the formula for Harry's points h = b/2 h = 18 / 2 h = 9 And we now know that Harry has 9 points.