There are 9 more pencils then pens in a container. there are 25 writing utensils in the container in all. how many pens are there in the container?

In order to determine the number of pens present in the container, we need to set up equations from the given in the problem statement. We do as follows:

let x the number of pencils
    y the number of pens

From the statement, 9 more pencils then pens in a container,

x = y + 9

From the statement, there are 25 writing utensils in the container in all,

x + y = 25

We use substitution method to calculate for x and y,

y + 9 + y = 25
2y = 16
y = 8
x = 17

Therefore, there are 8 pens in the container and 17 pencils.