The band needs to sell 32 carnations to get its profit equal to the cost of carnation.
The school band sells carnations on valentine's day for $2 each.
It buys the carnations from a florist for $0.50 each, plus a $16 delivery charge.
Let x be the number of carnations being bought or sold.
The selling price of the carnations will be,
[tex]S=2\times x[/tex]
The cost price of the carnations will be,
[tex]C=0.5\times x+16[/tex]
The profit will be calculated as,
[tex]p=S-C\\p=2x-(0.5x+16)\\p=1.5x-16[/tex]
When the profit equals the cost of carnation,
[tex]p=C\\1.5x-16=0.5x+16\\x=32[/tex]
Therefore, the band needs to sell 32 carnations to get its profit equal to the cost of carnation.
For more details about profit or loss, refer to the link:
https://brainly.com/question/984538
