price for one shirt
=
$
7.50
price for one pair of pants
=
$
18.50
Step-by-step explanation:
Start by letting variables
x
and
y
represent the pieces of clothing from the problem.
Let
x
be the price of one shirt.
Let
y
be the price of one pair of pants.
Equation
1
:
4
x
+
3
y
=
85.50
Equation
2
:
3
x
+
5
y
=
115.00
You can solve for each variable by using elimination or substitution. However, in this case, we will use use elimination. First, we will solve for
y
, the price of each pair of pants.
To isolate for
y
, we must eliminate
x
. We can do this by making the two equations have the same
x
values. First, we find the LCM of
4
and
3
, which is
12
. Next, multiply equation
1
by
3
and equation
2
by
4
so that
4
x
and
3
x
becomes
12
x
in both equations.
Equation
1
:
4
x
+
3
y
=
85.50
3
(
4
x
+
3
y
)
=
3
(
85.50
)
12
x
+
9
y
=
256.50
Equation
2
:
3
x
+
5
y
=
115.00
4
(
3
x
+
5
y
)
=
4
(
115.00
)
12
x
+
20
y
=
460.00
Now that we have two equations with
12
x
, we can subtract equation
2
from equation
1
to solve for
y
.
12
x
+
9
y
=
256.50
12
x
+
20
y
=
460.00
−
11
y
=
−
203.50
y
=
18.50
⇒
price for one pair of pants
Now that we know that a pair of pants is
$
18.50
, we can substitute this value into either equation
1
or
2
to find price for one shirt. In this case, we will choose equation
1
.
4
x
+
3
y
=
85.50
4
x
+
3
(
18.50
)
=
85.50
4
x
+
55.5
=
85.50
4
x
=
28
x
=
7.50
⇒
price for one shirt
∴
, the price for one shirt is
$
7.50
and the price for one pair of pants is
$
18.50
.