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16 votes
Pierre found a new store where he hopes to save

money on his supplies. He bought 4 brushes and 7
tubes of paint for $32. He has another order for 6
brushes and 8 tubes of paint that will cost $43.
What is the cost of one brush? What is the cost of
one tube of paint?

User Konyak
by
5.5k points

1 Answer

4 votes
Your first equation is 4x + 7y= 32, the x’s representing the brushes and the y’s the tubes of paint. Our second equation is 6x+8y=43. What I did is I multiplied the first equation by 1.5 so that it turns into 6x+10.5y=48. Then I subtracted the second equation from the first, canceling out the x’s and leaving us with 2.5y=5. Then divided and got y=2. We then go back to any of the original equations and plug it in to get the x’s.
6x+8(2)=43. We get 6x+16=43. We subtract and are left with 6x=27 and then x=4.5. Then plug both of them in to a different equation to double check. You could also use substitution by isolating one of the variables in one equation and then plugging it in to the other one.
User MestreDosMagros
by
5.4k points