Question

Penelope’s Printing Press promptly sails 5-Cent pencils and 10-cent pens to the public. It sold 1000 writing utensils and took in $74.50 in sales. How many pens and how many pencils did Penelope’s Printing Press sell?

Answer 1

Number of pens and pencils sold are 490 and 510 respectively.

Explanation:

Let, number of pens = x and the number of pencils = y.

It is given that,

Cost of one pen = 10 cents = 0.1 dollar

Cost of one pencil = 5 cents = 0.05 dollar

As, the total number of writing utensils sold are 100. So, we have,

`x+y=1000`

Also, the total sales is $74.50 gives,

`0.1x+0.05y=74.50`

Thus, the system of equations is,

x + y = 1000 .................................... (1)

0.1x + 0.05y = 74.50 .....................(2)

Multiply (1) by 0.1 and subtract both the equations, we get,

0.05y = 25.5 i.e. y= 510

So, x= 1000- 510 i.e. x= 490.

So, the number of pens and pencils sold are 490 and 510 respectively.