Math Problem of the Week - Middle School - Dec. 26, 2021 to Jan. 1, 2022

Middle School: 

Question: Mary is mailing a number of cassette tapes. She buys a large roll of bubble wrap for $12.00 and a large box of envelopes for $8.00 to package the tapes - enough for however many tapes she ships. It costs $2.50 to ship each one. Write an expression to represent the total cost to ship all the tapes in terms of T, the number of tapes Mary ships. 

Answer: $20.00 + $2.50T

Solution: The packaging supplies cost $12.00 + $8.00 = $20.00 in total. We don’t know how much Mary spends on shipping costs in total, but we know that it’s $2.50 multiplied by the number of tapes she spends. So, our expression is $20.00 + $2.50T.