Question

Alaina is selling wreaths and flowers for her chorus fundraiser. Wreaths cost $27 each and flowers cost $20 each. If she sold 15 flowers and made $543, how many wreaths did she sell? You must show ALL work to earn full credit.

Answer 1

To determine how many wreaths Alaina sold, we can start by breaking down the problem step by step:

1. **Calculate the total income from flowers sold**:
Alaina sold 15 flowers, and each flower costs $20. Therefore, the total income from flowers can be calculated using the formula:
\[
\text{Income from flowers} = \text{Number of flowers} \times \text{Price per flower} = 15 \times 20 = 300
\]
So, Alaina made $300 from selling flowers.

2. **Calculate the total income from wreaths sold**:
Alaina made a total of $543 from both flowers and wreaths. We can find out how much she made from wreaths by subtracting the income from flowers from the total income:
\[
\text{Income from wreaths} = \text{Total income} - \text{Income from flowers} = 543 - 300 = 243
\]
Alaina made $243 from selling wreaths.

3. **Calculate the number of wreaths sold**:
Since each wreath costs $27, we can find the number of wreaths sold by dividing the income from wreaths by the price per wreath:
\[
\text{Number of wreaths} = \frac{\text{Income from wreaths}}{\text{Price per wreath}} = \frac{243}{27}
\]
Performing the division:
\[
\text{Number of wreaths} = 9
\]

Therefore, Alaina sold **9 wreaths**.