Let's use the variable s to represent the NUMBER of student tickets and the variable a represent the NUMBER of adult tickets. Since there are a total of 530 tickets , we can write:
s + a = 530
Then since it costs $3 for each student ticket and $4 for each adult ticket, we can represent the total money spent by:
3s +4a = $1740
To solve these two equations with two unknowns, use substitution.
From the first equation we can write that s = 530 - a
Substitute this expression for s into the second equation:
3s +4a = $1740
3 (530 - a) + 4a = 1740
1590 - 3a +4a = 1740
1590 + 1a = 1740
1590 + 1a - 1590 = 1740 - 1590
1a = 150
Therefore, 150 adult tickets were sold.
The number of student tickets will be 530 - 150 or 380 student tickets.
To verify: 3 * 380 + 4 * 150 = 1140 + 600 = $1740
