Question

At the beginning of the week, James stopped by a local grocery store to buy fruit. He bought five bananas and three pears at a total cost of $3.80. Later that week he went to the store again and bought another two bananas and four pears for $3.20. Assuming that prices did not change during the week, what was the price of one banana and one pear?
haaaalllllp meh

Answer 1

Lets try to solve this problem using 2 equations, also,we will have bananas=b and pears =p

5b+3p= $3.80
2b+4p= $3.20  i will divide this equation by 2 and get
b+2p= $ 1.60  we subtract 2p from both side so i can find the cost for 1 banana
b+2p-2p=1.60-2p
b= $1.60-2p

I will replace the b in the first equation now,

5(1.60-2p)+3p=$3.80
8-10p+3p=3.80   solving for p
8-7p=3.80     we subtract 8 from both sides
-7p=-8+3.80
-7p=-4.20  we multiply both sides by (-1)
7p=4.20  we divide now both sides by 7
p=0.60   a pear cost 0.60 cents

a banana is b=1.60-2p,   b=0.40 cents