Help please

[Dick011]

Ok I need help, I’m quite embarrassed that I can’t work this out but would really appreciate your help.

Ok so I’ve booked a holiday for myself for two other couples, the total cost is: $14,123.02

First couple had an extra charge of $184

Second couple had an extra charge of $207

What would the price be for each couples?

We are not here to do your homework for you, but I'm sure someone will be willing to walk you through it. I would suggest try expressing it algebraically as a first step. - Angua

[doogly]

You want to have a good holiday. If the order of magnitude involved in the cost is ~$15k, the difference between the extra costs involved that you are looking at here have the wrong number of digits to matter. Certainly the .02 on the total cost does not matter. Just split it evenly. Everyone will be much happier. The differences should come out in the wash. This is not a dinner where someone has steak and wine and someone has the carrot sticks and juice box.

If you think I am just being glib about this, look, there is a real math thing happening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures

[gmalivuk]

Doogly is not *just* being glib, but he is being glib nevertheless.

As Angua's edit points out, we aren't here to do your homework for you, so if something looks like a homework problem, you need to show what you've already attempted and where you're getting stuck. Otherwise most of the answers you get will intentionally avoid giving you the answer your teacher wants.

If it's a real-life issue and not homework, then explain more about the situation in which it came up so we believe it's not just a story problem from your book. (Though, practically speaking, Doogly is right about that one.)

[Eebster the Great]

His answer does suggest a practical method for getting an exact answer to this problem by adjusting the individual charges until they are equal. It's not the algebraic method that the teacher probably wants and that extends to future problems, but it is a better method for solving the problem mentally, and it resembles the way friends actually do settle debts in many cases.

[ucim]

Of the total cost, how much of it was "extra charges"? How much is left to split evenly? Now you can figure out what each couple pays.

Jose