Deshaun bought a desktop computer and a laptop computer Befo

Deshaun bought a desktop computer and a laptop computer. Before finance charges, the laptop cost $250 less than the desktop. He paid for the computers using two different financing plans. For the desktop the interest rate was 7% per year, and for the laptop it was 8% per year. The total finance charges for one year were $325. How much did each computer cost before finance charges? Note that the ALEKS graphing calculator can be used to make computations easier. Desktop: $ Laptop: $

Solution

Let desktop cost $x

Let laptop cost $y

x - y = 250 ----(1)

Interest on desktop :

0.07x

Interest on laptop

0.08y

Total charges : 0.07x +0.08y = 325 ----(2)

Solve equations 1 and 2 to get x and y :

Desktop cost   = $ 2300

Laptop cost = $ 2050