Hi
I hope someone can shed some light on this question in my workbook. It is a holiday week and I can ask my teacher until tuesday - I'm going mad.

You buy 12 dollars worth of apples. They are kind of small so the cashier gives you two extra for free. This reduces the price per dozen by exactly 1 dollar. How many apples did you get for 12 dollars?

ok, I know the answer in the back of the book says 18 apples, but how??

any help much appreciated

Here's how I set it up:

Let A = original number of apples worth $12.
So the cashier gives you A+2 apples.

Now the original price in dollars per apple will be 12/A, and the original price in dollars per dozen apples will be 144/A. Ok so far?

Likewise the final price in dollars per dozen apples will be 144/(A+2). Right?

So we can write this equation:
144/(A+2) = 144/A - 1

I'll stop here and let you work out the rest. It will yield a quadratic equation with two roots, one of which is positive (the answer) and one of which is negative (to be discarded, because "negative apples" is meaningless).

Let me know if you want to see the complete solution. Good luck!

And welcome to AnswerPool!!