A theater sold 160 children’s tickets and 90 adult tickets. If the theater made $1,600 from the sales of the tickets, what were the prices of each ticket?
My set up is:
children 160 c 160c
adults 90 a 90a
Total 250 1600
First equation: 160 + 90 = 250
Second equation: 160c + 90a = 1600
answer:
a = $8.00
c = $5.50
How to solve? Is there enough information?
There is not enough information to give a definite answer because you have two variables and enough information for only one equation ($160c + 90a = 1600$). For example, $a$ could equal $c$, where $a$ is the price of adult tickets and $c$ is the price of children's tickets. You could find all possible answers by treating $a$ and $c$ as $y$ and $x$ and graph it as a line. All points on the line represent a possible answer to the problem as long as both $x$ and $y$ are greater than or equal to $0$ (bound the graph $x \geq 0$, $y\geq 0$).