Question

Coach Pettaway is buying basketball equipment for his team. He gets a
reduced rate if he buys 8 basketballs for every 3 jerseys. The reduced rate is $2.25
per basketball and $22.50 per jersey. The sales tax on each item is 6%. Coach
Pettaway has $400 in his budget to buy the basketballs and jerseys. What is the
greatest number of basketballs and jerseys he can buy at the reduced rate if the
ratio of basketballs to jerseys is 8:32 Show your work.

Answer 1

First, let’s all acknowledge that whoever comes up with problems like this WANTS kids to hate math...smh

I’m sure there is a prettier way to solve this, but here’s what I did:

8(2.25) + 3(22.50) =
18 + 67.50 = 85.50 per “set” of balls/jerseys
400/85.50 = 4.678 = number of “sets” he can buy. Round down to 4 so we have room for tax.

85.5 x 4 “sets”= $342
Tax on 342 is 0.06 x 342 = 20.52

$342 + 20.52 = $362.52 spent

Basketballs = 4 sets x 8 balls per set= 32
Jerseys = 4 sets x 3 jerseys per set= 12

32 basketballs, 12 jerseys, $362.52 spent