How Do you Solve This Problem .?

Question

 Mrs.Smith Went School Shopping And Bought A Shirt . She Also Bought A Pair Of Pants For $36.12 . She Spent $50.82 Altogether . Write An Equation To Find Out The Cost Of Her Shirt .

Answer 1

First, you know the unknown, that is the cost of the shirt. We will let x represent the cost of the shirt. Now, we need an equation that contains the unknown and the other pieces of information. Mrs. Smith spent 50.82 on the shirt and pants. So, x, the cost of the shirt, plus 36.12, the cost of the pants, has to come to 50.82.

x + 36.12 = 50.82. 

To solve for x, we must put x by itself on one side of the equation. But, we see that x is not alone. We have to subtract 36.12 from both sides of the equation to isolate x.

x = 50.82 - 36.12 = 14.70

And there you have it.

Answer 2

Mrs.Smith Went School Shopping And Bought A Shirt . She Also Bought A Pair Of Pants For $36.12 . She Spent $50.82 Altogether . Write An Equation To Find Out The Cost Of Her Shirt .

She bought a shirt, but we don't know how much it cost. However, we do know that the pants cost $36.12. And we know that the total money spent was $50.82. So the cost of the Shirt (S) plus $36.12 should equal $52.82, because she only bought those two things.

S + 36.12 = 52.82. To find S, think about how much the shirt would cost. Maybe $20 dollars? If it were $20, then the total cost would be 20 + 36.12 = 56.12. Well, it was a little less, so obviously the shirt was a little less than $20.

So if you don't remember the "trick" of how to find the answer, think 'what could I do with the two numbers to get a number around $20'? Multiply, divide, add, subtract? Multiplying will give you a super big number, but dividing will give you a small number. Adding 36 and 52 wouldn't make sense because the shirt will cost LESS than the total cost. So you'll have to subtract 36.12 from 52.82. And it equals $16.70. Does it make sense that 16.70 (the shirt) plus 36.12 (the pants) equals 52.82?

Don't try to remember all the tricks, just reason it out when you're not sure what to do. Hope that helps!