A book costs $1 plus half its price.

Question

Can anyone tell me exactly what is the question that is being asked in English for this equation? I am confused.

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A book costs \$1 plus half its price. How much does it cost?

A. \$1

B. \$1.50

C. \$2

Is the answer not \$1.50?

The answer for this problem is \$2.

Is he actually asking how much more of a price will it cost if you add another $1 plus half its price on top of the current book’s price?

Meaning let’s say the book cost \$2 and by adding another \$1 plus half its price, it will be another \$2 (hence the answer \$2) which makes the total \$4.

Answer 1

This is a very famous problem.

The solution is as follows:

Let the price of the book be $x$. Then according to the question we have $$1+\frac{x}{2}=x$$ $$\implies 1=\frac{x}2$$ $$\implies\boxed{\color{red}{x=2}}$$

The question asks you the price of one book. It says that the book costs $1$ dollar, plus half it's price. Emphasis on the comma pls.