Question

jessica goes to the store and buys a bag of chips a juice and a pack of gum the chips cost half the juice and the gum is $.50 less than the juice the total cost of the three snacks with no taxes is $3.50 what is the equation

Answer 1

The student needs to set up an equation based on the given costs of items. Defining the cost of the juice as 'J,' the equation for the total cost is: J + 0.5J + (J - 0.50) = 3.50. Solving this equation yields the individual costs: juice at $1.60, chips at $0.80, and gum at $1.10.

Step-by-step explanation:

The equation to find the cost of each item that Jessica buys at the store is set up based on the information given: chips cost half as much as the juice, gum is $0.50 less than the juice, and the total cost is $3.50.

Let's define the juice's cost as 'J' in dollars. Then, the chips would cost '0.5J' (half of the juice's cost), and the gum would cost 'J - 0.50'. Thus the total cost equation is the sum of the cost of the three items, which should equal $3.50. The equation looks like:

J + 0.5J + (J - 0.50) = 3.50

This equation simplifies to:

2.5J - 0.50 = 3.50

Adding $0.50 to both sides gives:

2.5J = 4.00

Dividing both sides by 2.5 yields:

J = 1.60

Therefore, the juice costs $1.60, the chips cost half of that ($0.80), and the gum costs $0.50 less than the juice ($1.10).