Question

Calliope bought 15 sets of mini markers to make goody bags for her party. Neon markers were $3 and metallic markers were $4. She spent $52. How many metallic and how many neon sets of markers did she buy?

Answer 1

assume all of them were neon

$15 \times 3 = 45$

difference between all neon and actual price

$52 - 45 = 7$

difference between neon and metallic

$4- 3 = 1$

number of metallic sets

$7 \div 1 = 7$

number of neon sets

$15 - 7 = 8$

Answer 2

Answer:

8 sets of neon markers and 7 sets of metallic markers

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represent the number of sets of neon markers.  These cost $3 each; this gives us 3x.

Since there are 15 total sets of markers bought, this means there are 15-x sets of metallic markers.  Each of these are $4; this gives us 4(15-x).

Together the cost was $52; this gives us the equation

3x+4(15-x) = 52

Using the distributive property,

3x+4(15)+4(-x) = 52

3x+60-4x = 52

-1x+60 = 52

Subtract 60 from each side:

-1x+60-60 = 52-60

-1x = -8

Divide both sides by -1:

-1x/-1 = -8/-1

x = 8

There were 8 sets of neon markers.  This means there are 15-8 = 7 sets of metallic markers.