Question 1123162
let y equal the amount that cameron had to start with and the amount that his 2 friends had to start with.


let x = the price of a box of candy.


the equation for cameron is y - 3x = 7.5


the equation for his two friends is y - 8x = 2


they each bought 4 boxes of candy and had 1 dollar left.


combine what they bought and what they had left and you have 8 boxes of candy with 2 dollars left.


yout two equations that need to be solved simultaneously are:


y - 3x = 7.5


y - 8x = 2


subtract the second equiation from the first toget 5x = 5.5


divide both sides of this equation by 5 to get x = 1.1


each box of candy cost $1.10.


cameron bought 3 for a total cost of $3.30.


add that to the 7.50 that he had left, and he started with 10.80.


his two friends bought 8 for a total cost of 8.80.


add that to the 2 they had left means they started with 10.80 as well.


aolution to the problem looks good asuming the problem was interpreted correctly.


the other interpretation i had was his two friends bought 4 boxes each and had 1 dollars left in total between them.


that would change the eqaution to:


y - 3x = 7.50


y - 8x = 1


in that case, subtracting the second equation from the first yields 5x = 6.50


solve for x to get x = 6.50 / 5 = 1.30.


in that case.


y = 3 * 1.30 = 7.50 results in y = 7.50 + 3.90 = 11.40


y - 8 * 1.30 = 1 results in y = 1 + 10.40 = 11.40


so, depending on hos the problem is interpreted, the answer could be that each box cost $1.10 or each box cost $1.30.


i would tend to go with the first interpretions which resulted in a cost of $1.10 for each box of candy, but there is always that possibility that the second interpretion was the one they meant.


got to pick one, so i'd go with the first.