Question

A store sells gift cards in preset amount. You can purchase gift cards for 20 or 30. You have spent 560 on gift cards. Write an equation in standard form to represent this situation. What are three combinations of gift cards you could have purchased?

Answer 1

Let’s denote the number of $20 gift cards as x and the number of $30 gift cards as y. The equation representing this situation in standard form would be:

20x+30y=560

This equation states that the total amount spent on gift cards, $560, is equal to the sum of the cost of x number of $20 gift cards and y number of $30 gift cards.

Now, let’s find three combinations of gift cards you could have purchased:

If you bought 14 gift cards worth $20 each and 8 gift cards worth $30 each, then the total would be $560.

If you bought 18 gift cards worth $20 each and 4 gift cards worth $30 each, then the total would also be $560.

If you bought 4 gift cards worth $20 each and 16 gift cards worth $30 each, then the total would again be $560.

These are just a few examples. There are other combinations as well that would total to $560.