Problema Solution
Richard and Michael start with equal amounts of money. Richard buys 11 cans of drink and has £3.50 left over. Michael borrows the extra £2.50 he needs in order to buy 19 cans. The cans are all the same price.
a. Form an equation where x is the price of one can in pounds.
b. Solve your equation to find the price of one can.
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'x' represent the cost of one can in pounds, let 'p' represent the amount of money Richard has (and therefore the amount of money Michael has)
we have these two equations:
p-3.50 = 11x
p+2.50 = 19x
we can combine these two equations by solving each for 'p':
p = 11x + 3.5
p = 19x - 2.5
and then we set the above equations equal to each other to obtain a single equation for the price of one can in pounds:
11x + 3.5 = 19x - 2.5
8x = 6
x = 6/8 = 0.75
the price of one can is 0.75 pounds