how do I calculate how many apples and oranges were bought with an amount of money

Question

Word problem where I need to build an equation.  A person spent $7.75 buying apples and oranges.  Apples cost: $0.40 each and oranges $0.35 each. How many apples and oranges were bought?

Answer 1

Set variables for the quantities we want to find.

 

Let x = number of apples

Let y = number of oranges

 

 

Next, we use these variables to write equations that describes the whole story.

 

Since the total price is $7.75 and each type of fruit has their own price, we can say

 

0.40x + 0.35y = 7.55

 

 

The other equation will represent the total number of fruits bought all together, as Mark mentioned.  Once you have those equations, you solve the system using substitution and elimination methods to solve for the variables x and y.