Question

A party rental company has chairs and tables for rent. The total cost to rent 2 chairs and 5 tables is $35. The total cost to rent 8 chairs and 3 tables is $38. What is the cost to rent each chair and each table?

Answer 1

A chair costs $2.50 each and a table costs $6 each.

Step by Step Step-by-step explanation:

First, let's break this down to two equations.

Equation 1: 2c + 5t = 35

Equation 2: 8c + 5t = 38

Let's first solve for "t" (tables) by modifying Equation 1 so that it has the same number of chairs as Equation 2.

To do that, we must times the equation by 4, so:

4(2c + 5t = 35) -> 8c + 20t = 140.

So now the two equations we have are:

1: 8c + 20t = 140

2: 8c + 3t = 38

Now that they have the same number of chairs (8c), we can subtract Equation 2 from Equation 1, and that gets us the following:

17t = 102

t = 102 / 7 = 6.

Therefore, a table costs $6.00 to rent.

Knowing this, we can use either equation to now find "c". Let's use Equation 1.

2c + 5(6) = 35

2c + 30 = 35

2c = 5

c = 5 / 2 = 2.5

So now we know each chair costs $2.50 to rent. Let's use Equation 2 to confirm both the costs of the table and the chair.

8(2.5) + 3(6) = 38

20 + 18 = 38

38 = 38.

Therefore, each chair costs $2.50 and each table costs $6.