214k views
5 votes
Susan is buying black and green olives from the Olive bar for her party. She buys 4 pounds of olives. Black olives cost three dollars a pound. Green olives cost five dollars a pound. She spends $15.50. How many pounds of each type of olives does she buy? Write and solve a system of equations. Give the answer to in context of the problem.

User Musma
by
6.3k points

1 Answer

1 vote

Answer:

She buy 0.5 pounds of black olives and 3.5 pounds of green olives.

Explanation:

Given:

Susan is buying black and green olives from the Olive bar for her party. She buys 4 pounds of olives.

Black olives cost three dollars a pound. Green olives cost five dollars a pound.

She spends $15.50.

Now, to find the pounds of olives she buy.

Let the pounds of black olives be
x.

And the pounds of green olives be
y.

So, total pounds of olives:


x+y=4


x=4-y ........( 1 )

As, given the cost of black olives $3 a pound.

And cost of green olives $4 a pound.

Now, the total money spends:


3x+4y=15.50

Substituting the value of
x from equation (1) we get:


3(4-y)+4y=15.50


12-3y+4y=15.50


12+y=15.50

Subtracting both sides by 12 we get:


y=3.5

The green olives = 3.5 pounds.

Now, substituting the value of
y in equation (1):


x=4-y\\x=4-3.5\\x=0.5\ pounds.

The black olives = 0.5 pounds.

Therefore, she buy 0.5 pounds of black olives and 3.5 pounds of green olives.

User Guy Levy
by
6.5k points
Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.