SOLUTION: Hi greg went shopping with 360 dollars. He bought calculator s and shirts and had $8.50 left. each shirt cost 33 dollars and a calculator costs 17.50 . He bought 3 more shirts

Question 1121428: Hi
greg went shopping with 360 dollars. He bought calculator s and shirts and had $8.50 left.
each shirt cost 33 dollars and a calculator costs 17.50 . He bought 3 more shirts than calculators.
how many shirts and calculators did he buy.
thanks
Found 3 solutions by Boreal, greenestamps, josgarithmetic:
Answer by Boreal(15235)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
S-3=C
33S+17.50(S-3)=351.50
33S+17.50S-52.50=351.50
50.5S=404
S=8 shirts
C=5 Calculators
Answer by greenestamps(13215)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Here is a solution using logical reasoning and a bit of mental arithmetic. Compare it to the formal algebraic solution provided by the other tutor, and you will see the formal algebra does virtually the same thing as a common sense solution.

So algebra isn't magic, like it might seem at first -- it is just common sense, done in a formal way.

The given information is that he spent $351.50 on some number of calculators and a number of shirts that was 3 more than the number of calculators; the calculators cost $17.50 each and the shirts cost $33 each.

Suppose now that he goes back and buys 3 more calculators, so that the number of calculators is the same as the number of shirts. The 3 extra calculators cost $52.50; so now the total cost would be $351.50 + $52.50 = $404.

(Note it doesn't matter that that total is more money than he started with because he didn't really buy those 3 extra calculators.)

That new total cost of $404 is for the same numbers of shirts and calculators. The cost of one shirt and one calculator is $50.50; the number of shirts he bought is then $404/$50.50 = 8.

So the number of shirts he bought is 8; now take away those 3 extra calculators we added to the problem, to find that the number of calculators he bought was 5.
Answer by josgarithmetic(39630)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Greg spent dollars .

He bought x+3 shirts and x calculators.

Account for spending according to prices and quantities:

-------number of calculators

-------number of shirts
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