Question

Paint town sold 45 paintbrushes, one kind at $8.50 each and another at $9.75 each. in all, $398.75 was taken in for the brushes. how many of each kind were sold.

Answer 1

It's a system of equations

Answer 2

Let x be number of $8.50 brushes;
y be number of $9.75 brushes then

x+y = 45------(1)
8.5x+9.75y= 398.75----(2)

Multiplying first equation by 8.5 and subtracting gives
1.25y=16.25
y=16.25/1.25
y=13
put 'y' in equation (1)
x=32

So there were 32 paintbrushes costing $8.50 and 13 paintbrushes costing $9.75