Guitar Manufacturer

Question

A guitar manufacturer spent $89 million on the production of acoustic and electric guitars in 1999. If the amount the company spent producing acoustic guitars was $50 million more than it spent on producing electric guitars, how much in fact did the company spend producing electric guitars?

Answer 1

Hi A, let x represent the amount spent producing electric guitars. Then the amount spent producing acoustic guitars was x + 50 (million.) Set up an equation and solve.

 

x + (x + 50) = 89

 

Solve for x:

 

x + x + 50 = 89

 

2x + 50 = 89

 

Subtract 50 from both sides:

 

2x = 39

 

Divide both sides by 2:

 

x = 19.5

 

The company spent 19.5 million producing electric guitars.

 

Questions?

Answer 2

Let's say the manufacturer spent $X million in production of acoustic guitars and $Y million for electric guitars in 1999. so the total is X + Y = 89. This is the first equation. 

 

We know that the company spent producing acoustic guitars was ?$50 million more than it spent on producing electric? guitars. From here we can write down the second equation as: X = Y + 50.

 

let's write both equations as follow:

 

X + Y = 89

X= Y + 50

 

Let's replace X in the first equation with "Y+50", so we can calculate the value of Y:

 

Y+50 +Y= 89

2Y+50 = 89

2Y + 50 -50 = 89-50

2Y = 39

2Y/2 = 39/2

Y = 19.5 (company spent $19.5 million in production of electric guitars in 1999). 

X = Y + 50 = $19.5 +$50 =$69.5 (company spent $69.5 million in production of acoustic guitars in 1999).