Question

Beth spent a total of $261 on jeans and t-shirts. Shirts cost $12 and jeans cost $45. She bought a total of 8items. How many shirts did Beth buy

Answer 1

ANSWER:

3 shirts

STEP-BY-STEP EXPLANATION:

We can calculate the number of t-shirts purchased through a system of equations. Let x be the number of t-shirts and y be the number of jeans, we establish the following:

$\begin{gathered} 12x+45y=261 \\ \\ \:x+y=8\rightarrow y=8-x \end{gathered}$

We substitute the second equation into the first and solve for x, just like this:

$\begin{gathered} 12x+45(8-x)=261 \\ \\ 12x+360-45x=261 \\ \\ -33x=261-360 \\ \\ x=\frac{-99}{-33} \\ \\ x=3 \end{gathered}$

Therefore, Beth bought a total of 3 shirts.