At a cafeteria, Mary orders two pieces of toast and a bagel, which comes out to $3.15. Gary orders a bagel and a muffin, which comes out to $3.50. Larry orders a piece of toast, two bagels, and three muffins, which comes out to $8.15. How many cents does one bagel cost?
Let's write a system of equations to solve this problem..
Let's set b as bagel.
Let's let m be muffin.
Let's let t be toast.
We have the system
2T+1B=3.151M+1B=3.501T+2B+3M=8.15
We want to isolate b. From the first 2 equations, we can easily isolate the other two variables to only contain b, We have
[3.15−B]/2=TM=3.50−B
Now, we subsitute these two into the third equation. We get
[3.15−B]/2+2B+3[3.50−B]=8.15[3.15−B]+4B+6[3.50−B]=16.30−3B+3.15+21=16.30−3B=16.30−3.15−21−3B=−7.85B=7.85/3≈$2.6.67
This is about 262 cents or 261 and 2/3 cents.
Thanks! :)