Martha is making centerpieces for her Thanksgiving dinner. There are six centerpieces, and each centerpiece uses 8 roses, twice as many orchids as roses, and a certain number of lilies. If Martha wants to spend $2700 total, and each flower costs $15, how many lilies will she put in each centerpiece? Give me reasons, before answering the question
First figure out how many total flowers Martha is going to buy by dividing her total spending by the price per flower: $2700 / $15 / flower = 180 flowers. Now figure out how many flowers are in each centerpiece by dividing the total number of flowers by the number of centerpieces: 180 flowers / 6 centerpieces = 30 flowers / centerpiece. Now figure out how many orchids are in each centerpiece by multiplying the number of roses per centerpiece by 2: 8 roses / centerpiece * 2 = 16 orchids / centerpiece. Now subtract the number of roses and orchids per centerpiece from the total number of flowers per centerpiece to find the number of lilies per centerpiece: 30 flowers - 16 orchids - 8 roses = 6 lilies. So the final answer is 6.