Since the price of the cantaloupes is unknown, it will have to represented by a variable. Let's use x. If Jackson starts with $25 and buys 5 cantaloupes of an unknown price, this subtracts 5 times the amount of 1 cantaloupe (which is x) from that $25. This is shown as 25 - 5x. After spending that money, he has $2.50 left over. This means 25 - 5x = 2.50. Now you just need to solve this by first isolating the variable. First, subtract 25 from both sides. 25 - 5x - 25 = -5x 2.50 - 25 = -22.5 Then, divide both sides by -5. It's -5 since 5 is the coefficient and it's negative, so -5. -5x / -5 = x -22.5 / -5 = 4.5 This means x = 4.5. And if x is 4.5, then that means the cost of 1 cantaloupe is $4.50.
