At a back to school sale chris bought 3 pencils and 7 pens for $3.55. at the same sale his brother james bought 7 pencils and 3 pens for $2.95. how much would it cost to purchase 1 pencil and 1 pen?

Let a represent pencils and b represent pens. Then we can create the equations: 3a + 7b = 3,55 and 7a + 3b = 2,95. Isolate the a in the first equation: a = (3,55-7b)/3 and put the isolated a into the second equation: 7(3,55-7b)/3 + 3b = 2,95 => 7*3,55/3 - 7*7b/3 + 3b = 2,95 => 7*3,55/3 - 2,95 = 49b/3 => b = 5,333/16,333. To find a put the value of b into the first equation: 3a + 7*5,333/16,333 = 3,55 => a = 0,42146 and b=5,333/16,333= 0,32652