Question

Julia went to the movies and bought one jumbo popcorn and two chocolate chip cookies for $5:00. Marvin went to the same movie and bought one jumbo popcorn and four chocolate chip cookies for $6.00. How much does each item cost.

Answer 1

In order to solve for this, let's start by assigning two variables.

'p' will represent the price of popcorn? and 'c' will represent the price of a cookie.

Now that we have these two variables, we can use the given statements to make two equations:

p + 2c = 500 ("Julia...bought one jumbo popcorn and two chocolate chip cookies for $5.00")
p + 4c = 600 ("Marvin went to the same movie and bought one jumbo popcorn and four chocolate chip cookies for $6.00")

In order to solve for the variables, we can use the subtraction method.

p + 2c = 500
-p - 4c = -600
___________
-2c = -100

Divide both sides by -2:
c = 50

Now that we know that a cookie costs 50 cents, we can input it into one of our equations to solve for the price of popcorn:

p + 2(50) = 500
p + 100 = 500
p = 400

Jumbo popcorn costs $4.00, and cookies cost $0.50.

Good luck! If you need me to explain anything in more detail, just ask :))
-T.B.