Question

Liam's bookstore sold 40 notebooks and 20 newspapers for a total of $130dollar sign, 130. A day later, the bookstore sold 8 notebooks and 4 newspapers at the same prices, for a total of $28dollar sign, 28. How much does a notebook and a newspaper cost at Liam's bookstore?

Answer 1

I believe there is no solution.

Answer 2

The problem has no answer.

Explanation:

In this case we have the necessary information to define a system of equations with 2 equations and two unknowns (Notebooks are Nt, and newspapers are Ns, this is:

Eq. 1:
`40*Nt+20*Ns=130`

Eq. 2:
`8*Nt+4*Ns=28`

Now replacing the Eq. 2 in the Eq. 1:

`40*((28-4*Ns)/(8))+20*Ns=130`

`140-20*Ns+20*Ns=130`

As we can see, the Ns variable eliminates itself from the eqaution by subtraction, analyzing we can observe that the Eq. 2 is the same as Eq. 1, just that is divided by 5 in all of its terms.

The problem has no answer.