Mrs. Roberts sewed m shirts using 2 yards of cloth for each shirt. She also sewed (m + 2) dresses, using 5 yards of cloth for each dress. How much cloth did she use altogether?

1 Answer
Apr 26, 2017

See the solution process below:

Explanation:

We can write the expression for how much cloth Mrs. Roberts used for the shirts as:

#c_s = m * 2#

Where #c_s# is the cloth Mrs. Roberts used for the shirts and #m# is the number of shirts Mrs. Roberts sewed.

We can write the expression for how much cloth Mrs. Roberts used for the dresses as:

#c_d = (m + 2) * 5#

Where #c_d# is the cloth Mrs. Roberts used for the dresses and #m + 2# is the number of shirts Mrs. Roberts sewed.

We can now write the formula for how much cloth Mrs. Roberts used altogether as:

#c = c_s + c_d#

Substituting and solving for #c# gives:

#c = (m*2) + ((m + 2) * 5)#

#c = 2m + ((5 * m) + (5 * 2)#

#c = 2m + (5m + 10)#

#c = 2m + 5m + 10#

#c = (2 + 5)m + 10#

#c = 7m + 10#

Altogether Mrs. Roberts use #7m + 10# yards of cloth.