Jim's family is choosing whether to go to a restaurant for lunch or for dinner. The cost of a salad is $7 at lunch and $9 at dinner. The cost of a steak is $10 at lunch and $12 at dinner. Each person will choose either a salad or a steak regardless of the mealtime. Jim calculates the food bill to be $41 if they go during lunch and $51 if they go during dinner. How many people will choose a salad?

Question

Alisa Williamson

Mathematics

6 December, 23:47

Jim's family is choosing whether to go to a restaurant for lunch or for dinner. The cost of a salad is $7 at lunch and $9 at dinner. The cost of a steak is $10 at lunch and $12 at dinner. Each person will choose either a salad or a steak regardless of the mealtime. Jim calculates the food bill to be $41 if they go during lunch and $51 if they go during dinner. How many people will choose a salad?

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Answers (1)

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Skyler Huffman · Answer 1

To answer the problem above we let x be the number of people who prefers salad and y be the number of people who chose steak. For lunch they will be spending $41. That is,

7x + 10y = 41

Now, for dinner they will be spending $51. That is,

9x + 12y = 51

The values of x and y from both equations are 3 and 2, respectively. Therefore, 3 people will choose a salad.