Jim bought some potted plants: Petunias cost $11 per pot and Begonias cost $15 per pot. Jim bought 19 potted plants in all and spent a total of $225 on the plants. Which would be a correct statement?

Question

Jim bought some potted plants: Petunias cost $11 per pot and Begonias cost $15 per pot. Jim bought 19 potted plants in all and spent a total of $225 on the plants. Which would be a correct statement?

Jim bought 4 petunias.
Jim bought 18 begonias.
Jim bought 15 petunias.
Jim bought 15 begonias.

Answer 1

Jim bought 15 petunias.

Answer 2

To find the correct statement, let's solve the problem step-by-step.

Let's assume Jim bought x petunias and y begonias.

According to the information given in the problem:
Petunias cost $11 per pot, so the total cost of the petunias would be 11x dollars.
Begonias cost $15 per pot, so the total cost of the begonias would be 15y dollars.

Jim bought a total of 19 potted plants, so the equation can be written as:
x + y = 19 (Equation 1)

Jim spent a total of $225 on the plants, so the equation can be written as:
11x + 15y = 225 (Equation 2)

Let's solve these equations to find the values of x and y.

We can solve this system of equations by substitution or elimination method. For simplicity, let's solve it using elimination method:

First, let's multiply Equation 1 by 11:
11x + 11y = 209 (Equation 3)

Now, let's subtract Equation 3 from Equation 2:
(11x + 15y) - (11x + 11y) = 225 - 209
4y = 16
y = 4

Substituting the value of y in Equation 1:
x + 4 = 19
x = 19 - 4
x = 15

Therefore, Jim bought 15 petunias and 4 begonias.

So, the correct statement would be:
Jim bought 15 petunias.

Answer 3

To solve this problem, we can set up a system of equations. Let's assume Jim bought 'x' petunias and 'y' begonias.

According to the given information, the total number of pots Jim bought is 19. Therefore, our first equation is:
x + y = 19

We also know that the cost of each petunia pot is $11 and each begonia pot is $15. The total amount spent on the plants is $225. This gives us our second equation:
11x + 15y = 225

To find the correct statement, we need to solve this system of equations. There are multiple methods to do so, but let's use substitution.

From the first equation, we can solve for x in terms of y:
x = 19 - y

Now we substitute the value of x into the second equation:
11(19 - y) + 15y = 225

Simplify the equation:
209 - 11y + 15y = 225
4y = 16
y = 4

Substituting the value of y back into the first equation:
x + 4 = 19
x = 15

Therefore, the correct statement is: Jim bought 15 petunias and 4 begonias.