Flour costs $0.75 per pound and sugar costs $0.50 per pound. An order of flour and sugar weighs 16 pounds and costs $9.

Question

What equation could we write to represent that the total cost of the flour and the sugar in the order is $9? Let f represent the pounds of flour and s represent the pounds of sugar in the order.
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Answer 1

To represent the total cost of the flour and sugar in the order, we can set up an equation based on the cost per pound of each ingredient and the quantities used.

Given:

• The cost of flour is $0.75 per pound.
• The cost of sugar is $0.50 per pound.
• The total weight of the order is 16 pounds.
• The total cost of the order is $9.

Let \( f \) represent the pounds of flour and \( s \) represent the pounds of sugar.

We can write the following equations based on the given information:

1. The equation for total weight: \[ f + s = 16 \]

2. The equation for total cost: \[ 0.75f + 0.50s = 9 \]

These two equations represent the problem. You can use these equations to solve for \( f \) and \( s \).