Question

Robert buys cheese and lemons at the store.
He pays a total of $24.36.
He pays a total of $5.31 for the cheese.
He buys 5 bags of lemons that each cost the same amount.

Write and solve an equation which can be used to determine xx, how much each bag of lemons costs.

Answer 1

To solve this problem, we first need to identify the variables and establish relationships based on the information given.

Let \( x \) be the cost of each bag of lemons.

Robert buys 5 bags of lemons, thus the total cost for lemons can be written as:
\[
5x
\]

Robert pays a total of $24.36 for both cheese and lemons. We know that he paid $5.31 for the cheese. Therefore, the equation relating the total cost and the costs of cheese and lemons is:
\[
5.31 + 5x = 24.36
\]

Now, we can solve for \( x \):

1. Subtract the cost of the cheese from the total amount:
\[
5x = 24.36 - 5.31
\]
\[
5x = 19.05
\]

2. Divide both sides by 5 to find \( x \):
\[
x = \frac{19.05}{5}
\]
\[
x = 3.81
\]

Thus, each bag of lemons costs **$3.81**.