You sell small and large candles at a craft fair. You collect $144 selling a total of 28 candles. How many of each type of candle did you sell?

Answer 1

You sell small and large candles at a craft fair. You collect $144 selling a total of 28 candles. How many of each type of candle did you sell?

To solve this problem we would need to know how much each size candle costs. I will set the value of each candle to demonstrate.

Let s = number of small candles and L = number of large candles sold

Let's say that small candles cost $3 and large candles cost $10.50

We must write two equations,

One to represent the number of candles sold

28=s+L

And one to represent the money

144=3s+10.5L

Then you must solve the system to determine the number of each type of candle. To do this you can use substitution, elimination or graphing. The quickest way, if permitted, is to graph it. I prefer to use desmos.com/graphing as you can plug the equations is as is and desmos will mark where their intersect. This intersection point represents a solution that satisfies both equations.

On the graph, the lines intersect at the point (20,8) where x is the number of small candles and y the larger.

Thus the answer would be 20 small candles and 8 large candles.