the Jones family received 19 pieces of mail on November 3. The mail consisted of letters, bills, magazines, and ads. How many letters did they receive if they received five more ads than bills, the same number of letters as magazines, and three more bills than magazines?​

2 letters.

Step-by-step explanation:

Consider the number of bills as x.

Since they recieve "5 more ads than bills" ads is x+5.

And since they recieved "three more bills than magazines," magazines is x-3.

And since they recieved the same number of magazines and letters, letters is also x-3.

bills=x

ads=x+5

magazines=x-3

letters=x-3.

19 pieces of mail = bills +ads + magazines + letters

plug in the information: 19 = x + (x+5) + (x-3) + (x-3)

group the x's and add the numbers: 19 = 4x -1

solve for x:  x=5

We are still not done since x is the number of bills, not letters.

Plug the value of x into "letters = bills-3."

so...

Letters = 5 - 3

Letters = 2.