The concession stand at the local high school sells pretzels and lemonade. The total cost of two pretzels and a lemonade is $5.75. The total cost of two lemonades is $0.25 more than the cost of a pretzel. What is the cost of a pretzel?
Working Let p represent the cost of pretzels and L the cost of a lemonade. From the second paragraph, 2p+ L= 5.75
From the equation above, the cost of a pretzel p can be expressed as: 2p= 5.75 - L p= 5.75/2 - l/2 The cost of two lemonades exceeds that of a pretzel by 0.25: 2 L= 5.75/2 -L/2+0.25
Solving this gives: L=1.05
Then replace the value of L in p= 5.75/2 - L/2 This gives the value of a pretzel.