31. Students at a local middle school are selling candy bars for a fund-raiser. The candy bars come packaged in cases of 60 bars, and the school makes a $0.75 profit from each candy bar sold. How many cases of candy bars need to be sold for the school to make a profit of $900?
Answer: C
20 cases of candy bars need to be sold for the school to make a profit of $900.
To determine how many cases of candy bars need to be sold to achieve a profit of $900, we first calculate the total profit from one case. Since each case contains 60 candy bars and the profit per bar is $0.75, the profit from one case is 60 bars × $0.75 = $45. To find out how many cases are needed for a $900 profit, we divide $900 by $45, resulting in 20 cases.
A) 8
Selling 8 cases of candy bars would yield a profit of 8 cases × $45 per case = $360. This amount is significantly less than the required $900 profit, making this option incorrect.
B) 12
If the school sold 12 cases, the profit would be 12 cases × $45 per case = $540. While this profit is higher than selling 8 cases, it still falls short of the $900 target, thus this option is incorrect.
C) 20
Selling 20 cases of candy bars results in a profit of 20 cases × $45 per case = $900. This meets the profit goal exactly, confirming that this option is correct.
D) 40
Selling 40 cases would result in a profit of 40 cases × $45 per case = $1800. Although this exceeds the $900 requirement, the question asks for the minimum number of cases needed to reach $900, making this option unnecessarily high and incorrect.
Conclusion
The calculation clearly demonstrates that selling 20 cases of candy bars achieves the exact profit of $900 required, while all other options either fall short or exceed this amount unnecessarily. Thus, option C is definitively the correct answer.