Question

To check out a customer, a grocery store cashier needs 2 seconds to scan each item being purchased, as well as 30 seconds to process payment. If it takes 44 seconds to ring up a particular customer, how many items is the customer purchasing?

Answer 1

7

Explanation:

Let's say the customer has x items. For each item, we add 2 seconds. For 3 items, we need 2 + 2 + 2 = 2*3 seconds. For x items, we need 2 * x seconds. Then, we add the processing payment time of 30 seconds, so for x items, the total amount of time = 30 + 2 * x

Here, the total amount of time is 44, so we have

44 = 30 + 2x

subtract 30 from both sides to isolate the variable and its coefficient

14 = 2x

divide both sides by 2 to isolate x

x = 7