Question

The table below shows the ticket rates for whale watching trips offered by Beluga Fun Tours:

Age Ticket Price
Under 3 years free
3 to 12 years $34
Over 12 years $45

On a certain day, the company took 103 people on whale watching trips. There were 64 children aged 12 and under, of which some children were under 3 years. If x represents the number of children under 3 years, which equation can be used to find the value of x, where C represents the total amount of money collected from tickets that day?

Answer 1

you know that there are 64 children under 12 and 103 total people. This means that the number of people over the age of 12 has to be (103 - 64). To find the amount of money earned from this group of people, just multiply by the price for people over the age of 12: $45. Thus, one part of your equation has to be (103 - 64)∙45.

The second part of the equation is a bit more difficult. You know that x = the number of children under 3, and those children are free. All we need to find is the number of children between 3 and 12 who have to pay and then multiply by their price: $34. So, just subtract the free children from the total children and multiply by 34: (64 - x)∙34.

Put this all together and you get (64 - x)∙34 + (103 - 64)∙45