215k views
2 votes
Maria bought 20 apples and oranges for her children's school lunches. Apples cost 40 cents each and oranges cost 35 cents each. She spent $7.75 for the fruit. How many of each kind of fruit did maria buy?

2 Answers

4 votes

Final answer:

To find out how many apples and oranges Maria bought, set up a system of equations using the total number of fruits and the total amount spent. Solve the system to find that she bought 15 apples and 5 oranges.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve the problem, we can use a system of equations based on the given information. Let x be the number of apples Maria bought and y be the number of oranges. We have:

  • The total number of fruits: x + y = 20
  • The total amount spent on fruits: 0.40x + 0.35y = 7.75

We now have a system of two equations to solve:

  1. x + y = 20
  2. 0.40x + 0.35y = 7.75

Multiplying the second equation by 100 to eliminate decimals, we get:

  1. 40x + 35y = 775

Using the substitution method, we can solve for y in the first equation: y = 20 - x. Now we can substitute y in the second equation:

  1. 40x + 35(20 - x) = 775

Then we have:

  1. 40x + 700 - 35x = 775
  2. 5x = 775 - 700
  3. 5x = 75
  4. x = 15

So Maria bought 15 apples. Since we know the total number of fruits is 20, we can find out the number of oranges:

  1. y = 20 - x
  2. y = 20 - 15
  3. y = 5

Maria bought 15 apples and 5 oranges.

User Tarkmeper
by
8.3k points
4 votes
38 apples and 44 oranges
User Daniel Budick
by
9.1k points