Please help with Algebraic Expression. 6th grade algebra.

Question

Brian bought x apples and some oranges. Brian bought 3 ore oranges than apples:

a. Find the total number of fruit Brian bought in terms of X.

2(X+3)

b. Find the total amount of money, in cents, that Brian spent of the fruit. Give your

answer in terms of X.

Apples are .40 Oranges are .50

.9X+1.50

Multiply by 10

90X+150

c. If Brian could havae bought exacly 12 pears with the amount of money that was

spent on the apples and oranges, find the cost of each pear, in cents, in terms of x.

HELP! I am totally stuck on this part of the question and so is my Mom.

Answer 1

Let x = apples = A, just to keep it straight

and O = oranges

O=A+3

total fruit = O + A = A+3+A = 2A + 3

if total fruit is 2(x+3) then 2A+ 3 = 2(A+3) is the total = 2A + 6, which is impossible

2(x+3) must be a typo and it should have read 2x+3

total spent = 40 cents or $0.40 times 2x+3 = .4(2x+3) = .8x + 1.2

multiply by 100 to get the cost in cents 80x + 120

even if you used the 2(x+3) as the total fruit, the cost would be 40 cents times 2(x+3) = 80x+240

which is also not equal to 90x +150

Actual cost should be 80x +120

the 90 seems to come from adding 40 cents plus 50 cents, which is impermissible adding of apples & oranges. you need the same units to add them. 90 is a common mistake of not keeping units straight

12 pears at the same cost would mean one pear cost (80x+120)/12 = 80x/12 + 10 = 20x/3 +10 =

about 6.7x + 10 cents

but if you insist on using the 90x+150 as the total cost then each pear cost

(90x+150)/12 = 45x/6 + 25/2 = 7.5x + 12.5 cents per pear

The problem seems to be mis-copied or was defective at some point