Question

During a sale at the bookstore,books sold for $3 and magazines sold for $2.50.Jan spent $16 and bought a total of 6 books and magazines.how many of each did she buy

Answer 1

4 magazines @ $2.50 a piece
2 books @ $3 a piece
6 in total for $16

Answer 2

If you would like to know how many of each did Jan buy, you can calculate this using the following two equations:

b ... the number of books
m ... the number of magazines

$16 = b * $3 + m * $2.50 ... 16 = 3 * b + 2.50 * m
b + m = 6 ... b = 6 - m
__________________
16 = 3 * b + 2.50 * m

16 = 3 * (6 - m) + 2.50 * m

16 = 3 * 6 - 3 * m + 2.50 * m

16 - 18 = - 3 * m + 2.50 * m

- 2 = - 0.50 * m     /0.50

m = 2 / 0.50

m = 4 magazines 

b = 6 - m = 6 - 4 = 2 books

Result: Jan bought 4 magazines and 2 books.