kelly takes pam shopping for new clothes. shirts cost $12 and pants cost $21. Pam spends a total of $240 on 14 new items. how many shirts and how many pants did she buy?

Let's call the amount of pants x and the amount of shirts y.

12y + 21x = 240

y + x = 14 which could be changed to x = 14-y

now you plug it into the first equation

12y + 21 (14 - y) = 240

12y + 294 - 21y = 240

add the similar terms

12y - 21y = 240 - 294

-9y = - 54

cancels the minus signs on both sides

9y = 54

y = 6

now you plug y = 6 into the equation x = 14-y

x = 14 - 6

x = 8

answer: Pam bought 8 pants and 6 shirts