You are selling tickets for a high school basketball game. Student tickets cost $3 and general admission tickets cost $5. You sell 350 tickets and collect 1450. How many of each type of ticket did you sell?

2 Answers
Nov 6, 2015

150 at $3 and 200 at $5

Explanation:

We sold some number,x, of $5 tickets and some number,y, of $3 tickets. If we sold 350 tickets total then x + y = 350. If we made $1450 total on ticket sales, then the sum of y tickets at $3 plus x tickets at $5 needs to equal $1450.
So,
$3y + $5x = $1450
and x + y = 350

Solve system of equations.
3(350-x) + 5x = 1450
1050 -3x + 5x = 1450
2x = 400 -> x=200
y + 200 = 350 -> y=150

Nov 6, 2015

a = 200 and s = 150 with Systems of Equations.

Explanation:

For this question you can set up a few equations. We'll use the variable s for student tickets, and a for adult tickets.

Our equation will be 3s+5a=1450, for $3 times s students, and $5 times a students, equal to $1450.

We can also say s tickets plus a tickets is equal to the amount sold, 350. s + a = 350. From this equation, we can edit it to change it into a system of equations via substitution. Subtract a from each side, and we are left with s = 350 - a.

From here, we can substitute s in to the first equation. We are left with 3(350 - a) + 5a=1450. Simplified, that is 1050 + 2a = 1450, and when simplified all the way, it is a =200.

Now that we have a, we can plug it into our formula for s, if you recall, is s = 350 - a. That is s = 350 - (200), and simplifies to s=150.

To check your work, substitute a and s into your original equation and check. 3(150) + 5(200) = 1450. That simplifies to 450 + 1000 = 1450 => 1450 =1450.