Question

Castel bought 5 writing utensils for a total of $8. Pens cost $1 and pencils cost $2. How many of each writing utensil did he buy?

Answer 1

Answer: 8 = 1x + 2y

Explanation:

this could be multiple answers, is this a multiple-choice question? follow that equation to find the answer that fits.

I got the equation by these steps:

total money spent is $8, so you start with 8 =

you don't know the specific number of pens so make that x. the cost of pens is $1, so the total cost will be $1 times however many pencils are bought, ie 1x.

repeat that for pencils, replacing $1 with $2, and making pencils mean y. you get 2y.

now to find your answer, insert numbers into x and y until they equal 8.

possible answers:

x=4, y=1

x=2, y=2

x=0, y=4