Marina bought 2.6 pounds of salmon at the fish market. The total cost was $38.87. What was the price of the salmon per pound?

1 Answer
Jan 25, 2018

The salmon costs $14.95 per pound.

Explanation:

Write out an equation for the total cost. The price per pound multiplied by the number of pounds will give you the total cost.

"Total cost"="Price per pound"*"Number of pounds"

Rearrange this algebraically to solve for "Price per pound". To do this, divide both sides of the equation by "Number of pounds" to get "Price per pound" by itself.

"Total cost"/color(red)("Number of pounds")="Price per pound"*cancel("Number of pounds")/cancel(color(red)("Number of pounds"))

This leaves us with a new form of the equation.

"Price per pound"="Total cost"/"Number of pounds"

All we need to do now is substitute in the given information and solve.

"Price per pound"="Total cost"/"Number of pounds"=38.87/2.6=$14.95