Question

The cost of pencils varies directly with the number of pencils bought. if it costs you $1.02 to buy 6 pencils, how many pencils could you buy for $1.87 ?

Answer 1

To be able to determine how many pencils could you buy for $1.87, let's first determine how much each pencil cost.

a.) Buying 6 pencils cost $1.02.

Each pencil therefore costs:

`\text{ Cost of each pencil = }\frac{Total\text{ Price}}{\text{Number of Pencil bought}}`
`\text{ = }\frac{\text{ \$1.02}}{6}`
`\text{ Cost of each pencil = \$0.17}`

Let's now determine how many pencils could be bought at $1.87.

`\text{ Number of Pencils = }\frac{\text{ \$1.87}}{\text{Cost of each pencil}}`
`\text{ = }\frac{\text{ \$1.87}}{\text{ \$0.17}}`
`\text{ Number of Pencils = 11 Pencils}`

Therefore, at $1.87, you could buy 11 pencils.