Question

Chen is bringing fruit and veggies to serve at an afternoon meeting. He spends a total of $28.70 on 5 pints of cut veggies and 7 pints of cut fruit. The food cost is modeled by the equation 5v + 7f = 28.70, where v represents the cost of one pint of cut veggies and f represents the cost of one pint of cut fruit. If the cost of each pint of fruit is $2.85, what is the approximate price of a pint of veggies? (Round to the nearest cent.)

Answer 1

Given:
total cost : 28.70
cost per pint of fruit : 2.85

Formula: 
5v + 7f = 28.70
5v + 7(2.85) = 28.70
5v + 19.95 = 28.70
5v = 28.70 - 19.95
5v = 8.75
5v/5 = 8.75/5

v = 1.75  cost per pint of veggies.

to check:
v = 1.75 ; f = 2.85 ; total cost = 28.70

5v + 7f = 28.70
5(1.75) + 7(2.85) = 28.70
8.75 + 19.95 = 28.70
28.70 = 28.70