A certain fruit stand sold apples for $0.70 each and bananas for $0.50

Without calculating anything in paper you could approach this problem.

Know -- Some multiple of 7 + Some multiple of 5 should yield 63. To get to a some multiple of 5, we should ensure that a 3 or 8 (5+3) should be a multiple of 7.

63 is a direct multiple of 7, however in this case there won't be any bananas. Hence the next option is to look for a multiple of 7 that has 8 as the unit digit. 28 satisfies this hence no. of apples is 4 and no of bananas is 7 -- Answer 11 (B). -- 35 seconds straight.

Trial and error would be good for it, but here is another way:

\(7a+5b=63\) --> \(5b=63-7a\) --> \(5b=7(9-a)\) --> \(5b\) must be multiple of 7 --> \(b\) must be multiple of 7 --> \(b\) can not be 0 (as "a customer purchased both apples and bananas") or >14 (as \(5b\) in this case would be more than $6.30), so \(b=7\) --> \(a=4\).

Hope it's clear.
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hI ALL,

this is one of the first good questions i encountered.. here is what i did:

7a + 5b = 63
2a+5a+5b=63
2a+5(a+b)=63
i started substituting the answer choices
lets start wit 12
2a+5(12)=63 => 2a=3 .. a has to be an integer.. so no
2a+5(11)=63 => 2a=8 => a = 4 good.. but still need to check 13
2a+5(10)=63 => 2a=13 .. a has to be an integer.. so no
2a+5(13)=63 => 2a=-2 ==> a had to be +ve .. so no good

so 11 is the answer

Given: \(0.7b+0.5a=6.3\) Question: \(a+b=?\)

\(0.7a+0.5b=6.3\) --> \(7a+5b=63\). After some trial and error you'll get that only two integer pairs of (a,b) satisfy this equation: (9,0) and (4,7) as we are told that "a customer purchased both apples and bananas" then the first pair is out and we'll have: \(a=4\) and \(b=7\) --> \(a+b=11\).

Answer: B.
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7A + 5B = 63

5B = 63 - 7A

B= (63 - 7A)/5 => must be an integer, as we are dealing with quantities unless we can buy 1/4 of an apple or 1/3 of a banana (That could be funny :D )

so 63 - 7A must yield to a multiple of 5.

Now, let's pick some numbers.

if, A= 1, 63-7= 56 (not divisible by 5)
A= 2, 63-14= 49 (not divisible by 5)
A= 3, 63-21= 42 (not divisible by 5)
A= 4, 63-28= 35 (divisible by 5)

so A= 4, B= 7
A+B= 11 , Answer B

For more on this type of questions check:
eunice-sold-several-cakes-if-each-cake-sold-for-either-109602.html
martha-bought-several-pencils-if-each-pencil-was-either-a-100204.html
a-rental-car-agency-purchases-fleet-vehicles-in-two-sizes-a-105682.html
joe-bought-only-twenty-cent-stamps-and-thirty-cent-stamps-106212.html
a-certain-fruit-stand-sold-apples-for-0-70-each-and-bananas-101966.html
joanna-bought-only-0-15-stamps-and-0-29-stamps-how-many-101743.html
at-an-amusement-park-tom-bought-a-number-of-red-tokens-and-126814.html
collections-confused-need-a-help-81062.html

Hope it helps.
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Maybe it could be of any help to realise that

0.7y + 0.5x = 6.3 is a straight line, we want the 'y' on the left side, rewriting gives:
7y + 5x = 63
y = 9 - (5/7)x

Almost instantly you should see that the right term (5/7) can only be an integer if X is either 7, 14, 28 and so forth.
Ruling out fourteen we only have 7 left which gives 9-5 = 4 +7 fruits.

Let the no of apples sold = a
no of bananas sold = b
Question is a+b=?
Thus 70a + 50b = 630
7a + 5b = 63
Quick Tip- In order to find out the value of a & b its better to find the value of 'a' as "63- 7a" must leave a number which will end either with 0 or
with 5. (Think about it for a second)
Thus the only value which satisfies above equation is a=4 & b=7
a+b=11 (Other values of a & b will lie outside the answer choices)
Answer B

ezhilkumarank means that as multiple of 5 ends with 5 or 0 then multiple of 7 must end with 8 or 3 in order their sum to end with 3 (63). There is another approach in my previous post.

Hope it's clear.
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so apples is 0.70 * A

Bananas 0.50 * B

then 0.70A + 0.50B = 6.30

multiply by 10 we get

7A + 5B = 63

5B = 63 - 7A
B = 7(9-A)/5

now to satisfy this equation we need 9 - A = 5 only then it will be divisible by 5
therefore A is 4 and when solve we get B is 7

7(9-4)/5 = 7*5/5 then we need the sum of A + B = 7 + 4 = 11

Answer B

The first solution will invariably involve some brute force. But (9, 0) is easy to get since 63 is a multiple of 7.
Check out this post for clarification on these type of questions:
https://anaprep.com/algebra-integer-sol ... variables/
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Attached is a visual that should help.

The algebraic explanations in this thread are valid but needlessly complicated. Plus, it is unlikely that you will be able to come up with a similar approach to such a problem on your own. There is a much simpler and more broadly applicable approach that doesn't require trial and error.

Because the numbers of apples and bananas have to be integers, the easiest thing to do here is start with the total of 6.3 and subtract off .7 until you arrive at a multiple of .5.

6.3 - .7 = 5.6
5.6 - .7 = 4.9
4.2 - .7 = 4.2
4.2 - .7 = 3.5

We are now at a multiple of .5, having subtracted off 4 apples. Because the bananas are 50 cents each, this gives us 7 bananas, for a total of 11 pieces of fruit.

To solve this question -
we can take numbers, as price of apple 7, 5 for Banana and 63 total for ease.
Now we can determine quickly that total number should range between 63/7 <= N <=63/5, so ans should be between 9 and 12.

Now solving the expression
7A+5B =63

first possibility with 9 apples, 0 banana we get 6.30 total amount, but question says customer purchased both, apple and banana. so not correct.

So next choice, for 7A+5B =63 would come by decreasing 63 in multiple of 5 and checking divisibility of that number by 7. this way we get
4 Apples *0.70 + 7 banana *050 = 6.30

Hence total number is 7+4 =11

Ans B

I do not know what exactly your book says but I am guessing this is how they have solved it:

7a + 5b = 63
Such equations have infinite solutions. We can get a single solution under particular constraints. (Will explain this later)
One thing we notice right away is that one solution to this problem is a = 9 and b = 0 because 63 is divisible by 7.
7a + 5b = 63
a = 9, b = 0
a = 4, b = 7 (To get this solution, subtract 5, co-efficient of b, from a above and add 7, co-efficient of a, to b above)
a = -1, b = 14 (Again, do the same to the solution above)
a = 13, b = -7 (You will also get solutions when you add 5 to a of any other solution and subtract 7 from b of the same solution)
Hence there are infinite solutions.
Here the constraints are that a and b should not be negative. Also, they should not be 0 since he buys at least 1 apple and at least 1 banana. Only 1 solution satisfies these constraints so answer is a = 4 and b =7.
Why this works is because when you reduce a by 5, the reduction in 7a is offset by the increase in 5b when you increase b by 7. Let this suffice for now. This is the theory of Integral solutions to equations in two variables. I will explain you the complete theory soon.
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I have put up this theory on this link:
https://anaprep.com/algebra-integer-sol ... variables/


See if it makes sense now.
If there are doubts, get back to me on my blog itself or here...
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We are given that apples were sold for $0.70 each and that bananas were sold for $0.50 each. We can set up variables for the number of apples sold and the number of bananas sold.

b = number of bananas sold

a = number of apples sold

With these variables, it follows that:

0.7a + 0.5b = 6.3

We can multiply this equation by 10 to get:

7a + 5b = 63

Notice that we do not have any other information to set up a second equation, as we sometimes do for problems with two variables. So, we must use what we have. Keep in mind that variables a and b MUST be whole numbers, because you can't purchase 1.4 apples, for example. Notice also that 7 and 63 have a factor of 7 in common. Thus, we can move 7a and 63 to one side of the equation and leave 5b on the other side of the equation, and scrutinize the new equation carefully:

5b = 63 – 7a

5b = 7(9 – a)

b = [7(9 – a)]/5

Remember that a and b MUST be positive whole numbers here. Thus, 5 must evenly divide into 7(9 – a). Since we know that 5 DOES NOT divide evenly into 7, it MUST divide evenly into (9 – a). We can ask the question: What must a equal so that 5 divides into 9 – a? The only value a can be is 4. We can check this:

(9 – a)/5 = ?

(9 – 4)/5 = ?

5/5 = 1

Since we know a = 4, we can use that to determine the value of b.

b = [7(9 – 4)]/5

b = [7(5)]/5

b = 35/5

b = 7

Thus a + b = 4 + 7 = 11.

Answer: B
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Video solution from Quant Reasoning starts at 16:58
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For these types of questions, when the prices are very close together, estimation is usually the best strategy. Here by estimating, we only easily eliminate two answer choices -- if the person bought only apples, they would buy 9 apples, and if they bought only bananas, they would buy 12.6, so the answer must be between 9 and 12.6, and D and E must be wrong. If you combine that estimate with a bit of number theory, you can get the answer easily though:

7a + 5b = 63
2a + 5a + 5b = 63
2a + 5(a + b) = 63

Notice now that 2a is even, and 63 is odd, so 5(a + b) must be odd, so a+b is odd. And a + b is one of the answer choices, and the only odd answer we haven't eliminated yet (after estimating) is 11.

I still prefer the divisibility approach I explained on the previous page; with practice, that kind of approach can be used to solve this question in 15-30 seconds.
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