Question

A bakery sold apple pies for $12 and blueberry pies for $14. One Saturday they sold a total of 41 pies and collected a total of $536. How many apple pies did they sell and how many blueberry pies did they sell?
19 apple pies and 22 blueberry pies

22 apple pies and 19 blueberry pies

16 apple pies and 25 blueberry pies

12 apple pies and 28 blueberry pies

Answer 1

You need a system of equations to solve this, one relating the NUMBER of pies to each other and the other equation relating the MONEY to each other.  A is apple and B is blueberry.  The number of pies total sold was 41, therefore, A+B=41.  Since one apple pie costs $12, this is expressed as 12A and since one blueberry pie costs $14, this is expressed as 14B.  Since the amount of money earned from the sale of these combined is $536, then the second equation is 12A + 14B = 536.  Solve the first equation for A to get A = 41 - B. Now sub that in for A in the second equation to get 12(41-B)+14B=536. Distribute to get 492-12B+14B=536.  Combine like terms to get that 2B = 44 and B = 22.  That means they sold 22 blueberry pies. Now sub that in to your NUMBER equation to find A: A+22=41 and A = 19