sold. For others, it may be the price of the items being sold. Whichever piece of information you choose,
use the math to English translations in this chapter to help you identify the mathematical operations you
will need to write your equation.
Let’s work through the previous problem.
You may have noticed that at least some of this word problem is just providing background information
that isn’t really necessary to solve the problem. Lightly striking through the information will make the
problem look less intimidating.
9.Aubrie, Bera, and Kea are running a lemonade and snack stand to earn money. They are
selling lemonade for $1.07 a cup and chocolate chip cookies for $0.78 each. Their
customers arrive on foot or by car. During a three-hour period they had 47 customers each
buying only one item and they made $45.94. Aubrie, Bera, and Kea need to determine if
they have enough supplies for tomorrow. Solving which of the following system of
equations will let them know how many cups of lemonade, x, and how many cookies, y,
they sold today?The shortened problem makes it a lot easier to recognize important information. Start by identifying a
straightforward piece of information, so you can start writing your own equations.
They are selling lemonade for $1.07 a cup and chocolate chip
cookies for $0.78 each.This is a fairly straightforward piece of information. Once you identify which variable represents
lemonade and which one represents cookies, you can begin to write your equation. In this problem, the
very last sentence gives us the needed information.
...how many glasses of lemonade, x, and how many cookies, y...Now you know that the number of cups of lemonade they sold, multiplied by $1.07 per cup, will give you
the amount of money they made selling lemonade, and the number of cookies they sold, multiplied by
$0.78, will give you the amount of money they made selling cookies. Since the problem also gives you the
total amount of money they made, $45.94, and states that customers were “each buying only one item” you
can use the information above to write your first equation.