Susan is buying black and green olives from the Olive bar for her party. She buys 4 pounds of olives. Black olives cost three dollars a pound. Green olives cost five dollars a pound. She spends $15.50. How many pounds of each type of olives does she buy? Write and solve a system of equations. Give the answer to in context of the problem.

Respuesta :

Answer:

She buy 0.5 pounds of black olives and 3.5 pounds of green olives.

Step-by-step explanation:

Given:

Susan is buying black and green olives from the Olive bar for her party. She buys 4 pounds of olives.

Black olives cost three dollars a pound. Green olives cost five dollars a pound.

She spends $15.50.

Now, to find the pounds of olives she buy.

Let the pounds of black olives be [tex]x.[/tex]

And the pounds of green olives be [tex]y.[/tex]

So, total pounds of olives:

[tex]x+y=4[/tex]

[tex]x=4-y[/tex]    ........( 1 )

As, given the cost of black olives $3 a pound.

And cost of green olives $4 a pound.

Now, the total money spends:

[tex]3x+4y=15.50[/tex]

Substituting the value of [tex]x[/tex] from equation (1) we get:

[tex]3(4-y)+4y=15.50[/tex]

[tex]12-3y+4y=15.50[/tex]

[tex]12+y=15.50[/tex]

Subtracting both sides by 12 we get:

[tex]y=3.5[/tex]

The green olives = 3.5 pounds.

Now, substituting the value of [tex]y[/tex] in equation (1):

[tex]x=4-y\\x=4-3.5\\x=0.5\ pounds.[/tex]

The black olives = 0.5 pounds.

Therefore, she buy 0.5 pounds of black olives and 3.5 pounds of green olives.