Jackson had $25 to spend on groceries. After purchasing 5 cantaloupes he had $2.50 left how much did each cantaloupe cost

Since the price of the cantaloupes is unknown, it will have to represented by a variable. Let's use x.

If Jackson starts with $25 and buys 5 cantaloupes of an unknown price, this subtracts 5 times the amount of 1 cantaloupe (which is x) from that $25.

This is shown as 25 - 5x.

After spending that money, he has $2.50 left over.

This means 25 - 5x = 2.50.

Now you just need to solve this by first isolating the variable.

First, subtract 25 from both sides.

25 - 5x - 25 = - 5x

2.50 - 25 = - 22.5

Then, divide both sides by - 5. It's - 5 since 5 is the coefficient and it's negative, so - 5.

-5x / - 5 = x

-22.5 / - 5 = 4.5

This means x = 4.5.

And if x is 4.5, then that means the cost of 1 cantaloupe is $4.50.