I don't know where to begin?

tallibot

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On a recent trip tothe convenience store, you picked up 4 gallons of milk, 4 bottles of water, and6 snack-size bags of chips, your total bill (before tax) was $23.70. If abottle of water costs twice are much as a bag of chips, and a gallon of milkcosts $1.80 more that a bottle of water how much does each item cost?

How much does a snack-size bag of chips cost?

How much does a bottle of water cost?

How much does a gallon of milk cost?


My professorforgot to post the notes for this type of problem. He wanted us to finish this before tomorrow. Help.
 
Off the back wall

There is of course a systematic way of doing this problem but this is an off-hand approach that focuses on thinking.

You put 4 gallon size cartons of milk on the counter along with 4 bottles of water, and 6 bags of chips. But your bottles of water cost twice as much as your chips so in a moment of strength you trade the 6 bags of chips for three more bottles of water.

You now have 4 cartons of milk and 7 bottles of water on the counter.

Each bottle of water is $1.80 more expensive then each carton of milk. You could think of a gallon of milk as a bottle of water plus an additional $1.80 of expense. In that light you would be paying for the equivalent of 7+4 =11 bottles of water plus an additional $1.80 cents for each of the 4 gallons of milk. Your bill, if W is the cost of a bottle of water is then:

11(W) + 4($1.80) = $23.70 => W = $1.50

A carton of milk is then $1.50 + $1.80 = $3.30

The cost of a bag of chips is $1.50/2 = $.75

Check: 4(3.30) + 4(1.50) + 6(.75) = $23.70

PS. In the future you should make an attempt to solve the problem however confused you are.
 
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My professor forgot to post the notes for this type of problem.

Maybe you don't need the notes. That is, maybe you've already done problems where you assign symbols to represent unknowns, where you write equations from given relationships between the unknowns, and where you finally solve the equations (using substitutions and maybe some other algebra) to determine the value of the unknowns.

Maybe not.


I don't know where to begin

Does the following stuff look familiar, like something you may have done before?

Let M = price of one milk

Let W = price of one water

Let C = price of one bag-o-chips

W = 2*C

M = W + 1.8

This is how you begin.​


It's hard to tutor, without some idea of what you already know. If assigning symbols and writing equations is something you're not familiar with, then you need to speak to your instructor.

Otherwise, please take time to read the forum guidelines, before you reply; you can start with this link to the summary page.

Cheers :)
 
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