Let's use the variable x to represent the cost of a notepad.
Since the cost is given by $3 from the magazine plus four times the cost x from each notepad, we can write the following equation:
[tex]\text{Cost}=3+4x[/tex]The total cost is $11, so let's use this value in the equation and solve it for x:
[tex]\begin{gathered} 11=3+4x \\ 11-3=4x \\ 4x=8 \\ x=\frac{8}{4} \\ x=2 \end{gathered}[/tex]Therefore the cost of each notepad is $2.
