Question

I just asked this question but completely forgot to mention the main focus of the project. I need to solve this word problem using three ways. Substitution, Elimination, and Graphing. "The state fair is a popular field trip destination. This year the senior class at High School A and the senior class at High School B both planned trips there. The senior class at High School A rented and filled 8 vans and 8 buses with 240 students. High School B rented and filled 4 vans and 1 bus with 54 students. Every van had the same number of students in it as did the buses. Find the number of students in each van and bus."

Answer 1

Let's first define our variables:

Let x be the number of students in each van and bus.

Using substitution:

From the problem, we know that:

High School A rented 8 vans and 8 buses, with a total of 240 students. So we can write the equation:

8x + 8x = 240

High School B rented 4 vans and 1 bus, with a total of 54 students. So we can write the equation:

4x + 1x = 54

Now, we can solve for x in one of the equations and then substitute that value into the other equation to solve for the other variable. For example, let's solve for x in the second equation:

5x = 54

x = 10.8

Now, we can substitute this value of x into the first equation to solve for the number of students in each van and bus for High School A:

8x + 8x = 240

8(10.8) + 8(10.8) = 172.8

So each van and bus for High School A has 10.8 students in it.

Using elimination:

We can rewrite the equations we used above in standard form:

8x + 8y = 240

4x + y = 54

We can eliminate y by multiplying the second equation by -8 and adding it to the first equation:

8x + 8y = 240

-32x - 8y = -432

-24x = -192

x = 8

Now, we can substitute this value of x into either equation to solve for y:

4(8) + y = 54

y = 22

So each van and bus for High School A has 8 students in it and each van and bus for High School B has 22 students in it.

Using graphing:

We can graph the two equations on the same coordinate plane and find the point where they intersect, which represents the solution:

8x + 8y = 240

4x + y = 54

To graph these equations, we can first solve for y in each equation:

y = -x + 30

y = -4x + 54

Then, we can plot these two lines on the same coordinate plane and find their intersection:

(6, 24)

So each van and bus for High School A has 6 students in it and each van and bus for High School B has 24 students in it.