Problema Solution
Jared starts with $ 56.50. Seth starts with $43.80. Jared buys eight books and Seth buys six books. The books are all the same price. Jared and Seth have equal amounts of money left over.
a. Form an equation where x is the price of one book.
b. Solve your equation to find the price of one book.
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'b' represent the price of a book and 'c' represent the change both Jared and Seth had left over
we have these equations:
56.50 = 8b + c
43.80 = 6b + c
solving this system gives:
b = 6.35
c = 5.70
each book cost $6.35 and Jared and Seth each had $5.70 left over
if we want a single equation for the price of the book, then we solve both original equations for 'c' and set them equal to each other, as follows:
c = 56.50 - 8b
c = 43.80 - 6b
so we have this equation to solve for 'b':
56.50 - 8b = 43.80 - 6b
56.50 - 43.80 = -6b + 8b
2b = 12.70
b = 6.35