Question

Together a chair, a table, and a lamp cost $562. The chair costs 4 times as much as the lamp, and the table costs $23 less than the chair. Find the cost of the table.

Answer 1

$237.00

Explanation:

Let c, t, l represent the costs of the chair, table, and lamp, respectively. A system of equations can be written based on the problem statement:

• c + t + l = 562
• c + 0t -4l = 0
• c -t +0l = 23

These can be put into the form of an augmented matrix (see first attachment), and solved by any number of calculators or web sites (see second attachment). Note that the t variable is called x2 in this solution.

The solution is (c, t, l) = (260, 237, 65).

The cost of a table is $237.