A T-shirt fundraiser - Math Central

HOME

Math Central

Quandaries & Queries

Question from Andre, a student:

Lou's class is selling T-shirts for a fundraiser. The supplier charges 750$ for the initial design and the set-up plus 5$ for each imprinted shirt. The students sell the shirts for 15$ each.
a)How many T-shirts do the students need to sell to break even?
b)How much profit will the students make if they sell 150 shirts?

Andre,

I am going to start with part b). They have two costs. An initial cost of 750$ and then 5$ for each shirt. Thus their costs are

750$ + 150 × $5.

They charge 15$ for each shirt so their revenue is

150 × $15.

The profit is the revenue minus the cost so what is the profit?

For part a) you don't know how many shirts they need to sell so call it x. What are the costs for x shirts? What is the revenue for x shirts? If they just break even then the costs and the revenue are equal. Solve for x.

I hope this helps,
Penny

Math Central is supported by the University of Regina and The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.