The bowl of fruit contains apples, pears, and bananas. There are two more pears than apples, and three more bananas than pears.  If the bowl contains 19 pieces of fruit, how many bananas does it contain?
Define a variable ** Let A be the number of apples.
How many pears are there? ** There are A+2 pears.
How many bananas are there? ** There are (A+2)+3 pears.
Write an equation using the total number of fruit ** Then A+(A+2)+((A+2)+3)=19.
Simplify ** 3A+7=19
Simplify ** 3A=12
Divide by 3 ** A=4
How many apples are there? ** There are 4 apples.
How many bananas are there? ** There are (4+2)+3=<<4+2+3=9>>9 bananas.
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