To determine how much the principal paid for 1 box of pens, we need to perform a unit cost calculation. The unit cost is found by dividing the total cost by the number of units (in this case, the number of boxes).
The principal spent a total of $80 on 40 boxes of pens. To find the cost for 1 box, we take the total cost and divide it by the number of boxes:
Cost per box = Total cost / Number of boxes
It's given that the total cost was $80 and there were 40 boxes. So we calculate:
Cost per box = $80 / 40
When we divide 80 by 40, we get 2.
Therefore, the cost per box of pens is $2. This means the principal paid $2 for each box of pens.
