Santiago is working at his mom’s day care this summer. His mom has asked him to check out the library book sale to look for books they might be able to use in the day care. When he gets to the book sale, he sees that hard cover books are $2.00 and soft cover books are $1.00. He picks out a variety of books and spends $30.

A. Write a two-variable equation to represent this situation. Be sure to define the variables you use in your equation.

1 answer

Let's define the variables:

  • Let \( h \) represent the number of hard cover books Santiago buys.
  • Let \( s \) represent the number of soft cover books Santiago buys.

Based on the prices given for each type of book, we can formulate the equation. The cost of hard cover books is $2.00 each, and the cost of soft cover books is $1.00 each. Santiago spends a total of $30.

Thus, the two-variable equation representing the situation is:

\[ 2h + 1s = 30 \]

This equation captures the relationship between the number of hard cover books and soft cover books Santiago buys and the total amount spent.