Determine the total number of adult and student tickets

There were 5 adult tickets and 3 student tickets.

Step-by-step explanation:

Step 1:

Assume the number of adult tickets purchased is x and the number of student tickets purchased is y.

From the given data, we can write the following equations;

, take this as equation 1.

Since 8 tickets were purchased,

, take this as equation 2.

Step 2:

We rearrange equation 2 so we can substitute in equation 1.

, take this as equation 3.

By substituting equation 3 in equation 1, we get

Step 3:

Substituting this value of x in any of the previous equations we will get y's value.

Here this value of y is substituted in equation 2.

So we have x = 5 and y = 3. So there were 5 adult tickets and 3 student tickets.