Question

If 12 pairs of socks sell for $5.79, how much is one pair of socks?

Answer 1

Approximately equal to `0.5` cents.

Explanation:

Divide `5.79` by `12` to find the answer or you can use a proportion to calculate it (really helpful for me).

First, I put `12` over `5.79` so `12/5.79`. So we have socks/costs. You can have costs/socks. It does not matter.

They asked for how much is one pair of socks, we can write

`"12 pair of socks"/($5.79) = "1 pair of socks" / x`

Here `x` represents the cost of `1` pair of socks. It is good to use a variable when you have an unknown value.

Then we can do cross-multiplication. We have

`12x = $5.79`

Solving for `x` gives you

`x = $0.4825`

or approximately equal to `0.5` cents (do not forget the unit).

You can also search Google about cross-multiplication or use Khan Academy for more useful resources.