It costs $7.50 to enter a petting zoo. Each cup of food to feed the it animals is $2.50. If you have $12.50, how many cups can you buy, using a bar diagram to solve arithmetically?

1 Answer
Jun 12, 2018

#2#

Explanation:

You need to form an equation to solve these kinds of problems. In this case:

#2.50x+7.50 = 12.50#

The constant #7.50# comes from the price to enter the zoo which is only paid once. The coefficient of #2.50# is paid each time food is bought. #12.50# is the amount of money you have, so the amount paid cannot exceed that. Then, you solve for #x# by subtracting #7.50# from each side, then dividing by #2.50#:

#2.50x + 7.50 = 12.50#

#2.50x = 5#

#x = 2#

You can graph this function on a line graph, so I suppose you could make a bar graph out of it too.