Question

Jim bought some potted plants:

Petunias cost $11 per pot and Begonias cost $15 per pot.

Jim bought 19 potted plants in all and spent a total of $225 on the plants.

Which would be a correct statement?

Answer 1

To find a correct statement regarding Jim's purchase of potted plants, we can set up a system of equations based on the information provided.

Let:
- \( p \) represent the number of pots of Petunias
- \( b \) represent the number of pots of Begonias

From the problem, we have the following two equations:

1. The total number of plants:
\[
p + b = 19
\]

2. The total cost of the plants:
\[
11p + 15b = 225
\]

Now, we can solve this system of equations.

From the first equation, we can express \( b \) in terms of \( p \):
\[
b = 19 - p
\]

Now we can substitute \( b \) in the second equation:
\[
11p + 15(19 - p) = 225
\]

Expanding this gives:
\[
11p + 285 - 15p = 225
\]

Combining like terms results in:
\[
-4p + 285 = 225
\]

Subtracting 285 from both sides gives:
\[
-4p = 225 - 285
\]
\[
-4p = -60
\]

Dividing by -4:
\[
p = 15
\]

Now substituting \( p \) back into the equation for \( b \):
\[
b = 19 - 15 = 4
\]

So, Jim bought 15 pots of Petunias and 4 pots of Begonias.

Now we can check:

- Total number of plants: \( 15 + 4 = 19 \) (correct)
- Total cost: \( 11(15) + 15(4) = 165 + 60 = 225 \) (correct)

Therefore, a correct statement based on the above calculations would be:

"Jim bought 15 pots of Petunias and 4 pots of Begonias."