# Cost per Pound of Coffee Beans

#### cjowens722

##### New member
A coffee house blended 12 pounds of espresso flavored coffee beans with 11 pounds of vanilla flavored coffee beans. The 23 pound mixture cost \$166.50. A second mixture included 17 pounds of espresso flavored coffee beans and 18 pounds of vanilla flavored coffee beans. The 35 pound mixture cost \$254. Find the cost per pound of the espresso and vanilla flavored coffee beans.

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#### MarkFL

Staff member
Hello and welcome to MHB, cjowens722!

Normally, we expect people posting questions to show what they have tried so far so our helpers know how best to help by showing where you may be going astray or offer a hint on how to proceed.

I would begin by defining variables to represent the unknown quantities which we are asked to find:

$E$ = cost per pound of the espresso flavored coffee beans.

$V$ = cost per pound of the vanilla flavored coffee beans.

Now the first two sentences gives us an equation we can write:

$$\displaystyle 12E+11V=166.5$$

Can you write the other equation we can get from the next two sentences?

Once you do this, you have two equations in two unknowns, and you have probably (hopefully) just prior to this been given at least one technique for solving simulatneous linear equations. Can you proceed and show us what you get?