General admission tickets to the fair cost $3.50 per person. ride passes cost an additional $5.50 per person. parking costs $6 for the family. the total costs for ride passes and parking was $51. how many people in the family attended the fair.

5

members of the family attended the fair.

Explanation:

Form and solve an equation To do so, define the variable first.

You can usually choose the variable to be what we are asked to find.

Let the number of people in the family be

x

.

The amount paid by

each person

(

x

)

for admission and ride passes was

$

3.50

+

$

5.50

=

$

9.00

Only one payment of

$

6

was made by the family.

The total amount spent was

$

9

×

x

+

$

6

The total amount spent for the family was

$

51

There are two different ways of writing the same information.

They must be equal to each other:

9

x

+

6

=

51

9

x

=

51

−

6

9

x

=

45

x

=

5

5

members of the family attended the fair.