You have to spend on refreshments for a party. Large bags
of chips cost and sodas cost . You need to buy
exactly five times as many sodas as bags of chips. How many
bags of chips and how many sodas can you buy?
bags of chips
sodas

Let’s say the number of bags of chips you buy is . Since you need to buy exactly five times as many sodas, you’ll purchase sodas. The total cost can be expressed by the equation:

Simplifying this gives:

So, you can buy 13 bags of chips. Since you need five times that in sodas, you would purchase:

To summarize, you can buy 13 bags of chips and 65 sodas.

The real-world takeaway? This kind of budgeting is often a part of planning events like parties or gatherings, allowing you to maximize your spending while meeting specific requirements (like the soda-to-chip ratio!). Knowing how to set up equations based on your needs can make planning a breeze.

A common mistake here is miscalculating the ratios or forgetting to distribute the costs correctly. Always double-check your equation setup before solving. It’s easy to get lost in the numbers! Make sure everything adds up correctly to avoid any surprises when you check out.