Question

A local theater charges $26 for each adult ticket and $17 for each student ticket. For one show, the theater took in $988 from adults and $731 from students. How many people attended the performance.

Answer 1

so what you would do is divide 988 by 26 and divide 731 by 17 and those two numbers you would add which gives you the amount of people that attended the performance

Answer 2

Since the theater earned $988 for all adult tickets costing $26 each, we know that they sold:

$\dfrac{\ \,988}{\ 26 / \textrm{ticket}} = 38 \, \textrm{tickets}$

Additionally, since the theater collected $731 for all student tickets costing $17  each, we know they sold:

$\dfrac{\ 731}{\ 17 / \textrm{ticket}} = 43 \,\textrm{tickets}$

The number of tickets sold in total is:

$38 \,\textrm{tickets} + 43 \, \textrm{tickets} = \boxed{81 \,\textrm{tickets}}$

Thus, it can be assumed (1 person = 1 ticket), that 81 people attended the performance.