Question

Adult tickets to the fall play cost $8 and student tickets cost $4. the drama class sold 20 more adult tickets than student tickets to the fall play. if the class collected $880 from ticket sales, how many adult tickets were sold? the drama class sold _____ adult tickets.

Answer 1

Let a = Adult tickets, s = Student tickets; we are going to set up a system of equations. 

8a + 4s = 880
a - s = 20

We are going to multiply the second equation by so that we can cancel out one of the variables and solve for the other. This gives you:

8a + 4s = 880
4a - 4s = 20

Notice the s-variables will cancel:

12a = 900
a = 75

Now we plug in the amount of adult tickets to solve for the student ones.

75 - s = 20
- s = - 55

Divide both sides by - 1
s = 55.

There were 55 student tickets sold and 75 adult tickets.