1640.31 – Ballpoint Pen Sale


The Ticky-Tacky ball point pens weren’t selling at 50 cents each at the House Mouse store. So Chuck reduced the price. The pens sold out very quickly for a total sale of $31.93. What was the sale price of a pen?


Solution

The key to solving this problem is that a whole number of ballpoint pens were sold. To solve the problem, just try prices until you find one that yields a whole number when divided into $ $31.93. You only need to try numbers less than 50 cents. It won’t take you to long to discover that

31.93.31=103\dfrac{31.93}{.31} = 103

Thus the number of ballpoint pens sold was 103, and the sale price was 31¢.