"I have 32 leaves, elm maple and oak. I have 2 times as many maple leaves as elm leaves and 5 times as manu oak leaves as elm leaves how many do I have of each?"

So this is a simple case of some equations and then simplification.
Do you know what the equations should be ?
The statements give you 3 equations that just need solving.

I'll give you the first one.

5x + 2x = 32
10x = 32..
3.2 leaves for each?

Ratio of maple:elm = 2:1
oak:elm = 5:1

Combined, they become = 2:1:5 (for maple:elm:oak)

For a total of 8 parts.

Hence, maple = 2/8*32
elm = 1/8*32
oak = 5/8*32

I was wrong... here's the equation:

Let x be the number of elm leaves. Then 2x is the number of maple leaves because you have twice as many. 5x is the number of oak leaves because you have 5 times as many. So... The total number of leaves is x + 2x + 5x = 32, or 8x = 32. 32 divided by 8 is 4 so x is 4 and you have 4 elm leaves (x, remember?) 8 maple (2x) and 20 oak (5x)

Makes sense?

Unknown008 - you did it in a totally different way - and you have the same result. Cool :)

Yes, sometimes the easy 6th grade ratio is forgotten :)