Question

Ted bought 3 notebooks and 5 folders. Each notebook cost $4. The total for the supplies (before tax) was $27. How much was each folder? Write an equation and solve.

Answer 1

Ted bought 3 notebooks and 5 folders for $27

You know that each notebook cost $4, to the cost for the notebooks he bought can be calculated as the price per notebook multiplied by the number of notebooks bought:

`3\cdot4=12`

→ He spent $12 on the three notebooks.

Let "f" represent the cost per folder, then 5f represents the cost of all folders, we know that the notebooks plus the folders cost $27, then:

`12+5f=27`

From this expression, you can determine the cost of each folder, first subtract 12 from both sides of the equation:

`\begin{gathered} 12-12+5f=27-12 \\ 5f=15 \end{gathered}`

Now divide both sides by 5 to determine the value of "f":

`\begin{gathered} (5f)/(5)=(15)/(5) \\ f=3 \end{gathered}`

f=3 → This means that each folder costs $3