Math question, word problems, please help me!!!!

Question

The members of a cooking club are making cakes, which they will sell at a street fair for $8 apiece. It cost $34 for a booth at the fair, and the ingredients for each cake cost $6. At some point, the club members will sell enough cakes so that their sales cover their expenditures. How much will the sales and expenditures be? How many cakes will they have sold?

Answer 1

So in order to find an equation let's think about what the question is looking for. It wants you to find when the sales cover the expenditures. 

 

So our equation would look like:

 

Sales = Expenditures             

 

Now let's think about what "sales" means in terms of the main variable, the number of cakes sold.

 

Sales = $8x, where x is the number of cakes sold, because you make $8 for each cake.

 

Expenditures = $34 + $6x, because you spend $34 for the booth and $6 for each cake. 

 

Setting those equal you get 8x = 34+ 6x. 

 

Now solve for x and plug in the value you get to "sales" and "expenditures" to get your values. 

Answer 2

Hi Chloe, let x represent the number of cakes they must sell to break even. Then every cake they sell beyond x will be profit.

 

The equation is:

 

Cakes sold * $8.00 equal cost of the booth, $34.00, plus the cost of making each cake, $6.00.

 

8x = 34 + 6x

 

Subtract 6x from both sides:

 

2x = 34

 

Divide both sides by 2:

 

x = 17

 

The 17 cakes will result in sales of $136. Their expenditures for the 17 will be $102 plus the cost of the booth, or $34.

 

For every cake they sell beyond 17, the cooking club will make a profit of $2.

 

 

Questions?