SOLUTION: Hi, if anyone could help me with this. I would really appreciate it. A group of neighbors agreed to contribute equally toward the purchase of some garden equiptment costing $72

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Question 776407: Hi, if anyone could help me with this. I would really appreciate it.
A group of neighbors agreed to contribute equally toward the purchase of some garden equiptment costing $72. When the equiptment was delivered, two others asked to join the group. The result was that each person contributed $1.80 less than originally planned. How many were in the original group?
Thank you for the help! Kudos!

Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A group of neighbors agreed to contribute equally toward the purchase of some garden equiptment costing $72. When the equiptment was delivered, two others asked to join the group. The result was that each person contributed $1.80 less than originally planned. How many were in the original group?
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Let the original # of people be "x"::
Average cost for them would be 72/x dollars.
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Average cost with 2 additional people:: 72/(x+2)
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Equation:
original average - new average = 1.80
72/x - 72/(x+2) = 1.8
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1/x - 1/(x+2) = 0.025
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x+2 - x = 0.025x(x+2)
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0.025x^2+0.05x-2 = 0
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x = 8 (original # of people)
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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