Question

The school store sells pens for $0.75 each and pencils for $0.25 each. Anthony spent $6.25 to buy a total of 11 pens and pencils.

How many pens did Anthony buy?

Answer 1

7 pens

Explanation:

Anthony spent $6.25 buying 11 pens and pencils, where the pens cost $0.75 each and the pencils were $0.25. You want to know the number of pens Anthony bought.

Setup

Let x represent the number of pens Anthony bought. Then 11-x is the number of pencils, and Anthony's total expenditure was ...

0.75x +0.25(11 -x) = 6.25

Solution

Simplifying the equation gives ...

0.50x +2.75 = 6.25

0.50x = 3.50 . . . . . . . . subtract 2.75

x = 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . divide by 0.50

Anthony bought 7 pens.

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Additional comment

Anthony also bought 4 pencils.