Question

Shopping at Savers Mart, Lisa buys her children 4 shirts and 3 pairs of pants for $85.50. She returns the next day and buys 3 shirts and 5 pairs of pants for $115.00. What is the price of each shirt and each pair of pants.

Answer 1

Answer:

price for one shirt

=

$

7.50

price for one pair of pants

=

$

18.50

Explanation:

Start by letting variables

x

and

y

represent the pieces of clothing from the problem.

Let

x

be the price of one shirt.

Let

y

be the price of one pair of pants.

Equation

1

:

4

x

+

3

y

=

85.50

Equation

2

:

3

x

+

5

y

=

115.00

You can solve for each variable by using elimination or substitution. However, in this case, we will use use elimination. First, we will solve for

y

, the price of each pair of pants.

To isolate for

y

, we must eliminate

x

. We can do this by making the two equations have the same

x

values. First, we find the LCM of

4

and

3

, which is

12

. Next, multiply equation

1

by

3

and equation

2

by

4

so that

4

x

and

3

x

becomes

12

x

in both equations.

Equation

1

:

4

x

+

3

y

=

85.50

3

(

4

x

+

3

y

)

=

3

(

85.50

)

12

x

+

9

y

=

256.50

Equation

2

:

3

x

+

5

y

=

115.00

4

(

3

x

+

5

y

)

=

4

(

115.00

)

12

x

+

20

y

=

460.00

Now that we have two equations with

12

x

, we can subtract equation

2

from equation

1

to solve for

y

.

12

x

+

9

y

=

256.50

12

x

+

20

y

=

460.00

−

11

y

=

−

203.50

y

=

18.50

⇒

price for one pair of pants

Now that we know that a pair of pants is

$

18.50

, we can substitute this value into either equation

1

or

2

to find price for one shirt. In this case, we will choose equation

1

.

4

x

+

3

y

=

85.50

4

x

+

3

(

18.50

)

=

85.50

4

x

+

55.5

=

85.50

4

x

=

28

x

=

7.50

⇒

price for one shirt

∴

, the price for one shirt is

$

7.50

and the price for one pair of pants is

$

18.50

.

Step-by-step explanation:

yea