Explanation:
An adult ticket will be x.
Each adult ticket costs 15 dollars, so 15x
A child ticket will be y.
Each child ticket costs 3 dollars, so 3y
334 tickets were sold, totaling 3342 dollars.
15x + 3y = 3342 dollars in total.
Unknown number of adult tickets plus unknown number of child tickets equals to 334, so:
x number of adult tickets + y number of child tickets = 334 tickets in total.
x + y = 334
There are two equations in a system.
Use substitution:
x + y = 334
y = 334 - x
And plug it into other equation:
15x + 3(334 - x) = 3342
Solve for x since the question only asked for total number of adult tickets sold at theater (remember x is the number of adult tickets)
15x + (1002 - 3x) = 3342
15x + 1002 - 3x = 3342
Bring all x variables to one side and constants to other side:
15x - 3x = 3342 - 1002
12x = 2340
Divide both sides by 12:
x = 195
With that answer, we can conclude that 195 adult tickets were sold at the theater last night!
ANSWER: 195