Question

Sara purchased school supplies at the school store. She spent $20.50. She

purchased some pens, pencils, and erasers. She purchased four more pencils
than pens and two fewer erasers than pens.

Part A: If you represent pens with x write an equation to model this scenario

Part B: Solve for the number of pens that Sara purchased.

Answer 1

Answer A can be solved by simply replacing parts of a normal equation with the reference variable we are given: pens + pencils + erasers becomes x + (x + 4) + (x - 2). Since each value given is based off the value for pens purchased, we represent pens with x and our other variables as expressions based on that variable.

For part B, we can’t solve this without knowing the price, or at least I don’t think we can based on how I’m reading the question. Is there a price guide given with the question that needs to be included? I can’t help until seeing that. Hope my answer for part A helped at least.