Peter is buying office supplies. He is able to buy 3 packages of paper and 4 staplers for $40, or he

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Peter is buying office supplies. He is able to buy 3 packages of paper and 4 staplers for $40, or he is able to buy 5 packages of paper and 6 staplers for $62. How much does a package of paper cost? How much does a stapler cost?

Let the cost of paper packages be p and the cost of staplers be s. We're given two equations:

1. 3p + 4s = 40
2. 5p + 6s = 62

We have a system of equations. We can solve this three ways:

• Substitution Method
• Elimination Method
• Cramer's Rule

No matter what method we choose, we get the same answer:

• p = 4
• s = 7