Question

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

Answer 1

• 490 pens
• 510 pencils

Explanation:

Let p represent the number of pens Nick sold. Then the revenue is ...

0.10p +0.05(1000 -p) = 74.50

0.05p = 24.50 . . . . . . eliminate parentheses, subtract 50

p = 490 . . . . . . . . . . . . multiply by 20

The number of pencils sold is then ...

pencils = 1000 -490 = 510

Nick's Printing Press sold 490 pens and 510 pencils.