Atotal of
548
tickets were sold for the school play. they were either adult tickets or student tickets. the number of student tickets sold was three times the number of adult tickets sold. how many adult tickets were sold?

Let x be the number of tickets sold.  With 548 being the max number.  Since students bought 3 x the tickets, let 3x represent the number of student tickets and x be the number of adult tickets sold.  That would give you an equation like this:  3x+x=548, add the like terms, you get 4x=548.  Now solve for x by dividing both sides by 4, the 4's on the left cancel leaving x.  Now your equation will look like this:   x=548/4.