Ben's School Store Purchase Calculation

How much will it cost Ben to buy 1 binder and p pencils?

Ben wants to buy a binder and some pencils from the school store. Binders cost $2.25 each and pencils cost $0.75 each. What will be the total cost for Ben if he buys 1 binder and p pencils?

Final answer:

Ben can calculate the total cost of purchasing a binder and pencils by multiplying the number of pencils, p, with $0.75 and adding $2.25 for the binder.

Explanation:

Ben wants to calculate the total cost of purchasing 1 binder and p pencils. The binder is priced at $2.25 each and each pencil costs $0.75. To find the total cost, Ben will have to multiply the number of pencils he wants to buy, p, by the cost per pencil and add that to the cost of the binder. The formula to calculate the total cost (C) is:

C = Cost of 1 binder + (Cost per pencil × Number of pencils)

Plugging in the known values gives us:

C = $2.25 + ($0.75 × p)

This formula helps Ben and others to understand how to calculate costs for multiple items and can be applied to various scenarios, such as budgeting for groceries or allocation of spending money in typical consumer budget problems.