Ashley puts 45 stamps in an album. she puts the same number of stamps on each page, and 3 stamps on the last page. there are 2 more pages in the album than the number of stamps on each page. how many pages are in the album? how many stamps are on each page?

45 pages total
3 on last page
45-3=42
there are 42 on the rest of the pages
on each page, there are 2 more pages in album than then stamps on pages

amount of stamps on pages with equal number of stamps is
A=numberofpgest times number of stamps on pages
number of pages=p
number of stamps per papge=s
a=ps

2 more pages than stamps on pages
p=2+s
total number of stamps per page is s=(45-3)/(p-1)
(what I did is I first got rid of number of stamps on last page, then got rid of the last page)
P=2+s
s=(45-3)/(2+s-1)
s=42/(s+1)
times s+1 both sides
s^2+s=42
minus 42
s^2+s-42=0
factor
(s-6)(s+7)=0
set equal to zero
s-6=0
s=6

s+7=0
s=-7, false, no negative stamps

6 stamps per page

sub
p=2+s
p=2+6
p=8
8 pages

check
last page is 3 so 8-1=7 page left

7*6=42
3+42=45

correct

there are
8 pages in the album
6 stamps per page

What's the denominator