Question

Suzanne is landscaping her front yard. She made two trips to bring all the plants home. On the first trip she bought 8 flowers and 9 shrubs for $129. On the second trip she bought 12 flowers and 6 more shrubs for $126. If she bought the same kind of flower and shrub each time, what is the price, in dollars, of each shrub? (Use only the digits 0-9 and a decimal point, if needed, to enter a number.)

Answer 1

$9

Explanation:

Let price of flowers be f

and

let price of shrubs be s

On first trip, we can write:

8f + 9s = 129

On 2nd trip, we can write:

12f + 6s = 126

Since we need to find price of shrubs, we can solve the first equation for f and put it into 2nd equation and solve:

8f + 9s = 129

8f = 129 - 9s

f = (129 - 9s)/8

Now putting in 2nd, we solve for "s":

`12f+6s=126\\12((129-9s)/(8))+6s=126\\(1548-108s)/(8)+6s=126\\1548-108s+48s=8*126\\1548-60s=1008\\60s=540\\s=9`

Hence

the price of each shrub is $9